Phantom Pains
by CrazyClouds
Summary: My take on the Phantom-verse. Tucker and Sam are not very important. Mentor-Vlad, DannyxEmber. Danny's powers are somewhat different from canon, as is his personality. Rated M for excessive swearing, blood/gore, brutal fights, and insane amounts of violence. Welcome to Hell.
1. Chapter 1

Blinding, searing, all-encompassing pain. That was my world for about thirty seconds. Then the pain stopped, and I was thrown across the room as a last 'fuck you' from fate.

My name is Danny Fenton, and I'm currently lying in my basement-turned-lab (courtesy of my genius/insane parents) in a smoking heap of hurt. Why? Because, my parents, being the mad geniuses they are, built a portal to another realm. What realm? The 'Ghost Zone', as they like to call it. Ever since they were kids, my parents have had an unhealthy obsession with ghosts, leading to them spending twenty years researching ectoplasmic entities, then another twenty years building the portal. They tested it, and lo-and-behold, it didn't work. Rather than opening a portal to another dimension full of ghosts, the portal frame sparked, then quieted. Very anticlimactic. Twenty years of work, down the drain. And the disappointment on their face tugged at my little heart strings. I wanted so badly to be able to do something for them.

And so I did something. I suited up in my own hazmat suit, and walked into the portal. Being the clumsy fourteen-year-old teen I am, I tripped on one of the many wires running along the bottom of the portal frame. I barely managed to catch myself. Unfortunately, my hand hit the big, red 'ON' switch- that for some reason was inside the portal frame- as opposed to the simple metal wall.

So, back to the present. Here I lay, a massive headache coming on from where I hit my head on the lab wall, probably burnt to a crisp because of all the electricity running through my body just now, and very, very tired. I managed to sit up, but that was about it.

Opening my eyes, I surveyed my body. I thought I actually was burnt to a crisp, because most of my hazmat suit was black. Then I caught sight of the white gloves. You might be thinking, 'Oooh, white gloves. So what?', or something along those lines. Thing is, the gloves on my hazmat suit should be black, as they were before that little incident. It made sense that my mainly white hazmat suit became black, because it was charred, but the black-turned-white boots and gloves shocked me. Heh, heh. Get it? Shocked? Okay, I'll stop. But seriously, I was astounded.

It took me another five minutes to recover enough to stand, and when I did, I went straight to the mirror hanging over the sink in the corner. Where there should have been raven hair, there was snow white hair, and toxic green eyes took the place of previously ice blue eyes. Did I mention they were glowing? Odd as it was, I wasn't freaking out. Yet. After a minute of staring into the mirror, my brain seemed to catch up. That was when I started panicking. Why did I look so different!? Was it the electricity? There's no way I should have been able to survive a shock that massive! Then again, maybe I didn't survive...

Does that mean I'm a ghost?

Now my panic turned to hysteria. I didn't want to be dead! And become a ghost, no less! Now my parents would hunt me down, strap me to a table, and dissect me! They wouldn't see their son anymore, just a 'malicious piece of ecto-scum'. I don't want to be a ghost. I want to be human again!

Apparently, my desperate mental pleading did the trick. I felt an icy chill wash over me. I glanced back in the mirror, and was once again astounded to see a pair white rings flowing over my ghostly form. The rings seemed to be source of the deathly cold, and had one more function. Wherever the rings passed, the negative hazmat suit I was wearing change back into the normal all white-with-black-gloves-and-boots suit I was wearing before. White hair turned black, and toxic green eyes became ice blue once more. I was back to normal, human Danny Fenton. In all of my scrawny and pathetic glory. At least it was my scrawny and pathetic glory.

As for what just happened…? I have no clue. If I had to guess, maybe I died and was somehow revived? It made no sense. Oh well, whatever. So long as it didn't happen again. I was walking to the stairs of the lab, to ascend to the kitchen and go back to my normal life, completely content with ignoring this entire situation for the rest of my life and taking that secret to the grave, when I was wracked by a painful chill. I let out an involuntary gasp, and a wisp of my condensed breath could be seen. I felt a pressure inside my head, vaguely reminiscent of a headache, but far more concentrated. Then, the pressure began moving towards the back of my head, as if it was attempting to drag me that way.

Slightly bewildered, I turned my head to the right, and discovered that the pressure moved to the right side of head. Now very anxious, I completely turned around, and the pressure moved to right between my eyes.

My gaze fell upon a swirling green mass. The portal. It seemed that whatever I did had made it work. But that wasn't the object of my focus. I was more focused on the blue arm slowly emerging from another dimension…

* * *

Ha! Cliffhanger! If anyone here knows me from my other stories, you probably hate me. I seem to have a bad habit of starting stories, doing a few chapters, then starting a new story. Now is no different. In case you're wondering, I haven't been updating my other stories because A) I had to pull up my grades and B) I got kinda bored. :p Review with suggestions.


	2. Chapter 2

_I was more focused on the blue arm slowly emerging from another dimension…_

* * *

The arm protruding from the Ghost Portal was soon followed by the rest of its body. It was a rather short, pudgy, seemingly middle-aged man wearing overalls and a beanie. Who was blue. And also floating above off the ground.

"Ummm… Excuse me, sir. Would you happen to be a ghost, by any chance?" I stupidly asked.

The blue man regarded me strangely, as if he could not, for the life… er, death, of him, comprehend why I was trying to speak to him. Finally, he opened his mouth.

"I AM THE ALL POWERFUL BOX GHOST! BEWARE, HUMAN CHILD, FOR I AM HERE TO ASSERT MY DOMINANCE OVER YOUR REALM!" He shouted. I could not help the straight face I gave him at his claim.

"Did you say, um, Box Ghost?"

"I DID, INDEED, SAY BOX GHOST! BEWARE MY ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER ALL THINGS CUBIC!"

That's when the laughing started. I really had no control over myself at this point- blame the overdose of _weird_ \- and ended up lost in the uproarious laughter that spilled out of my throat. The so-called Box Ghost looked perplexed.

"WHY DO YOU RIDICULE ME, HUMAN CHILD? YOU SHOULD BE FLEEING IN FEAR AT THE TERROR OF MY MERE PRESENCE! STOP LAUGHING!" He demanded. I did not stop laughing. My stomach was starting to hurt. "YOU HAVE BROUGHT THIS UPON YOURSELF, HUMAN CHILD! BEWARE THE WRATH OF THE BOX GHOST!" And with that last utterance, his hands were engulfed in the same green stuff as the portal. It also surrounded some boxes of junk in the corner of the lab. Finally realizing that I might actually be in danger, I managed to bite back my laughter. I had to wipe a tear from my eye, and that split second of blurred vision is when a box slammed into my side.

I was hurled across the room, smacking into the metal wall with a loud bang. Very disoriented from my unexpected flight, along with the surprising force that the box hit me with, I definitely did not see the next attack coming. Another box slammed into my head, which in turn crashed into the wall again.

My already throbbing headache from the portal returned with a vengeance, almost causing me to curl up in pain. I was fairly certain I had a concussion by this point, but was a bit preoccupied by the sight of another box hurtling towards my head.

I tossed myself to the side, just in time to hear a loud crash as the box, filled with who-knows-what (and likely some heavy who-knows-what) slammed into the wall. Had my head been there…

Regardless of whether the box hit me or not, my head was determined to cause me issues. My earlier impromptu dodge had invoked the wrath of my headache/concussion, and my vision became unfocused. Now, it looked like I was facing off against two Box Ghosts.

Both ghosts had glowing green hands and were surrounded in a small tornado of boxes. After a few seconds, the duplicates merged back together, granting me clarity of vision (but no relief from my pain), which I greatly appreciated. It allowed to me to see my impending doom quite easily.

I raised my hands to protect my face as one of the boxes on the outskirts of the box-nado came dangerously close to taking off my nose. It was at this moment that I realized, for all his ridiculousness, this Box Ghost could actually kill me.

I must have shown fear on my face, because the Box Ghost started ranting again. "DO YOU REGRET YOUR ACTIONS NOW, HUMAN CHILD!? YOU WERE FOOLISH TO HAVE LAUGHED AT ME! THE BOX GHOST! NOW, FACE YOUR DOOM BY MY HANDS! I, THE BOX GHOST, SHALL DESTROY YOU! BEWARE!"

I was starting to get really pissed off by this dude. Ghost. Whatever. He just would not _shut up_!

I quickly scanned the ground around me, looking for something, anything, that could give an edge. I spotted the Fenton Thermos just a foot to my left. Reaching over and grabbing it, I remembered what my dad had said about it when I had asked one day.

" _This is the Fenton Thermos, son. It's supposed to trap ghosts, but since it doesn't work yet, it's just a thermos. A thermos, with the word 'Fenton' in front of it!"_

Not much help, dad. But I didn't have anything else, so it would have to do. I uncapped the thermos, pointed it at the box ghost, and pressed the green button. Nothing happened. I began panicking now, and cursed my dad for being incompetent when it really mattered. All of a sudden, something strange happened. My hand began to feel tingly to the point of uncomfort, then started glowing with the same green stuff as the box ghosts. Even weirder, the Fenton Thermos began beeping, then stopped after one particularly loud little jingle.

"Fully charged", said a little mechanical voice. Of course. Why am I not surprised?

The Box Ghost heard the little Thermos voice, and looked at the device. "YOU PLAN TO DEFEAT ME WITH THAT, HUMAN CHILD? HA! YOUR CYLINDRICAL OBJECT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO ANY HARM TO ME! MY BOXES ARE OBVIOUSLY FAR SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER SHAPES! BEWARE!"

Sadly, I was already used to the Box Ghost's continuous ranting, so I was able to easily ignore it. I pointed the Fenton Thermos at the Box Ghost, again, clicked the green button, _again_ , and watched in fascination as a light blue beam shot out, hitting the ghost square in the chest. It starting pulling at the ghost, warping his shape until he was flowing towards the Thermos in a vortex of blue. Once the Box Ghost was successfully crammed into the Thermos, I closed the lid tight. Then, for good measure- and because the dude was annoying- I shook the thing as hard as I could. Admittedly, it was not very hard, but I still felt a little bit better.

I looked around the lab, wondering what to do with the Box Ghost now. I could keep him in the Thermos, but that would be kinda cruel. Not to mention uncomfortable. My eyes landed on the Ghost Portal, and a figurative light-bulb went off above my head.

I walked over to the Portal, until I stood about five feet in front of it. Examining the Fenton Thermos, I found a knob, that switched between 'reverse polarity' and 'normal polarity'. It was currently set to 'normal polarity', so I turned the knob, uncapped the Thermos, and pointed it at the swirling green mass. I pressed the green button, and watched the light blue beam as it shot into the swirling toxic green. I saw the darker blue of the box ghost pass from the beam and enter the Ghost Zone. I immediately capped the Thermos, set the polarity back to normal, then ran over to the Portal control panel. Placing my thumb on the fingerprint scanner (designed to keep anyone other than the Fentons from opening the Portal), the black and yellow doors of the Portal slid together, closing with an ominous _thud_.

That mess taken care, I looked around the lab again. There were boxes, tools, and metal scraps scattered all over the place. Great. Just what I needed. _More_ work.

One hour and one clean(ish) lab later, I finally left the lab, climbing the metal stairs that led into the kitchen. Closing the lab doors, I immediately walked upstairs, into my room, and closed the door. I plopped down on my bed with a loud sigh, and fell into a deep, deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up at about three in the afternoon. Lucky me, yesterday was a Friday. I definitely needed the sleep. That attack from the Box Ghost _really_ took a lot out of me. I got up, and went into the bathroom connected to my room- a perk of having parents who were smart enough to make lots of money off their whacked, but admittedly cool, inventions. Halfway through brushing my teeth, I dropped my toothbrush.

' _Wow,_ ' I thought, ' _That attack yesterday must've exhausted me more than I thought._ ' I could not be more wrong. When I reached for my toothbrush, I got a nice look at the bathroom sink. Through my arm.

In case you didn't quite catch that, my arm was fucking _TRANSPARENT_! And tingly as all hell. That freaked me out big time. I started flapping my hand about in a full-on panic, when I noticed my hand go right through the white porcelain of the sink. I froze. Going through things was not something humans did. Then again, having see-through limbs was not quite normal either. Nor was charging a Fenton Thermos with green crap that poured out of my hands. I still don't know what that was… Ectoplasm, maybe?

I figured that the weird, almost numb feeling in my arm was causing the… what's the word? Intangerine? Wait, no... Intangible! Yeah, that. The strange tingle in my arm was causing the intangibility. Now, the big question was; how do I control it?

I spent the next half-hour basically staring at my transparent arm. I was actually trying to will the small vibrations away, but to no avail. That's when I started to get frustrated. Toothbrush forgotten in the sink, I walked out the bathroom and sat down on my bed. I put my head in my hands. Rather, just my left hand. My right hand went straight through my head. The most disturbing part about that was not the whole hand-through-the-head thing, but the fact that I could see _inside_ my arm. All the muscle, blood, bones, ligaments and whatnot at the part where intangibility met flesh. The innards of my arm were exposed to the air, yet thankfully stayed in me. It was sorta gross, but I had never been a very squeamish person, especially considering my parents always talked about what they would do to a ghost if they ever caught one.

Wait. Ghosts. Isn't intangibility a ghost thing? My parents were always lecturing me and my sister on all things ghost, such as their suspected powers- one of which was intangibility- their lack of emotions, their lust for death and destruction, etc.

When I woke up yesterday with the negative colors, I thought I died. And maybe I did, and temporarily became a ghost. Maybe this was a side effect of that mess. But then, I became regular me again after those rings appeared. I wonder if I could make those rings appear again…

And just like that, the blinding white light snapped into existence. It was so bright, I had to close my eyes, but the light still bled through my eyelids. When it stopped a second later, I opened my eyes, and was greeted to the sight of my negative colored hazmat suit. I got up so fast, I almost fell over and face planted. I immediately hopped over to my mirror, and took in my new appearance. The same white hair and green eyes as yesterday. But this time, I noticed my skin was a lot paler than normal. It also emanated a faint glow. Creepy. Rather than panic like yesterday, I willed the white rings (which distinctly reminded me of halos) to change me back into a human. They popped back up, did their work, then disappeared again.

I switched back and forth a few times between my human and… ghost form? I guess. It seemed to be pretty easy. What was _not_ easy, however, was controlling the intangibility affecting my right hand. Regardless of how many times I flipped forms, it remained transparent. I decided I would have a better shot at doing this if I was in my ghost form, considering intangibility is a ghost power. My thinking seemed to be right, as a few seconds after concentrating on my transparent arm, it became opaque once more. Thank god. I would have flipped the fuck out if I had to out live the rest of my life with an intangible arm.

Deciding that I had enough of my ghost powers for today, I transformed back to a human, then went to grab something to eat. Unfortunately for me, the Powers that Be seemed to think my life was a joke, because when I grabbed the doorknob, my hand went intangible again. Great. I tried with my other arm, which went intangible as well, while the original hand became opaque. I tried again, with my now opaque left hand. But that became intangible again. After fumbling around like this for a minute, I decided that if my body was going to force me to use intangibility to get out, then I would.

I walked at the door, and promptly smacked into it face first. My arms had gone through, but the rest of my body refused to get with the program.

Finally giving up, I let out a frustrated growl and turned around to go back to sleep. Which was the exact moment both of my arms turned tangible.

* * *

It took me a whole hour to get the slightest grasp of my intangibility power. I ended up having to transform into my ghost form and practice turning it on and off. Once I was fluent in ghost form intangibility manipulation, it became a little bit easier to do in human form. Easy enough that I could recognize the numbness crawling up my arms, and fight off the random bouts of power. I still couldn't use it on command though. Oh, well. Practice makes perfect. And I would _definitely_ be practicing. Being able to walk through walls- the perfect escape mechanism when running from bullies!

Now I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a late lunch before I headed back upstairs to start my homework, when my dad walked into the kitchen. Jack Fenton was a large man. By large, I mean the size of a grizzly bear. He even had the beastly strength to match. But his most notable feature had to be the horrendously orange hazmat/jumpsuit he wore. Everywhere. The only time I've seen Dad in something else was during my occasional nightly excursions to get a glass of water, when we passed each other in the hallway. He wore flannel pajamas at night.

"Er… Son. Where's your arm?" was the first thing Dad asked. I froze, sandwich halfway to my mouth as I processed his question.

"Uh, wut." I so eloquently replied. He pointed towards my right arm. I turned to look, and saw nothing. Mostly because my arm _wasn't there_. It couldn't be intangibility, because I was still holding my sandwich with both hands. The only logical explanation was invisibility. Doing some quick thinking, I barely managed to come up with something halfway convincing.

Grabbing the seemingly empty sleeve of my t-shirt with my left hand, I waved it around, moving my right arm in sync to create the illusion of an unoccupied piece of cloth. "Oh, this?" I asked Dad, "Well, ya see, my arm was feeling really for cold for some reason, so I pulled it into my shirt." Hopefully he bought it.

I wasn't so sure when Dad's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Unexplainable chills?" He said, "That usually happens whenever there's a _ghost_ around. MADDIE! WE GOT A GHOST IN THE HOUSE!"

Within two seconds, my mom, dressed in her blue jumpsuit and goggles, was in the kitchen. I have no clue where she came from, because I was too busy covering my ears in an attempt to not go deaf from my father's yell.

"A ghost!? Where!?" Mom cried.

"Somewhere in the kitchen. Danny-boy says he's been feeling an inexplicable chill. And you know what that means? GHOSTS!"

Mom gasped in shock. "Danny, sweetie, I need you to get out the kitchen!"

"But my sandwich-"

"NOW, honey!"

Letting out a sigh of exasperation, I got out of my chair, and went upstairs. The noise of my parents running about and yelling followed me all the way up.

"Jack, get the Fenton Finder!"

"I got it Mads!"

…

"Aw, rats! Looks like the ghost fled! Probably knew it was going up against the best ghost-hunters in the world!" Dad boasted.

* * *

Meanwhile, I was now in my room, arm still invisible. Deciding to handle it like intangibility, I transformed into my ghost form. Sure enough, a few seconds later, my arm became visible much to my relief. The feeling of invisibility was different from intangibility. For intangibility, my arm felt like it was vibrating. My theory is that the particles of my arm were vibrating so fast, it granted me the ability to pass through solid objects. Kinda like the Flash. Cool.

As for invisibility, my arm just felt hollow. I can't really explain that one. Yet. However, memorizing these sensations would likely be important for using my powers. I had originally wanted to do my homework, but then the invisibility popped out. Since it was Saturday, I could still do my homework tomorrow. I spent the rest of the night practicing invisibility and intangibility, mostly in my ghost form, but eventually in human form when I felt confident enough. I thought I was starting to get the hang of this whole 'ghost powers' thing. But then Murphy's Law decided to fuck with me.


	4. Chapter 4

I thought I was starting to get the hang of this whole 'ghost powers' thing. But then Murphy's Law decided to fuck with me.

* * *

I had just finished getting dressed after a late shower, when I let out an unbidden gasp, caused by a sudden chill that wracked my entire body. I exhaled a wisp of condensed breath before it promptly dispersed. Just like what happened back in the lab, before the 'Box Ghost' came out the portal… was it some type of ghost sense? That would be very useful. More importantly, however, was the yell of "BEWARE!", before I suddenly found myself on my front lawn, face-down-ass-up. Very embarrassing, along with the fact that I was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and a white t-shirt.

I rounded on my opponent, who just so happened to be the Box Ghost from earlier.

"How did you get out of the Ghost Zone so quick?" I asked the blue annoyance.

"EVEN THE UNDERWORLD IS UNABLE TO CONTAIN THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS I, THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!"

"...No, but seriously, how?"

"A natural portal, duh." Natural portal? Those happen?

"Those happen?"

"Occasionally. The only issue is that they can spit you out anywhere. Not to mention they close pretty quickly."

Wow. I just had a civil semi-conversation with a ghost. Maybe my parents were wrong with their theory that ghosts were just ectoplasmic masses of primal urge. That didn't surprise me too much. They do, after all, believe that ghosts were behind the sinking of the Titanic...

"HUMAN CHILD! ARE YOU READY TO FACE YOUR DOOM?" Then again, maybe my parents were right.

I panicked upon the realization that I didn't have the Fenton Thermos. How was I supposed to handle this guy? Intangibility and invisibility were only useful for running/dodging. Then again, running and dodging was all I needed to do until I got to the Thermos. Following that line of thinking, I transformed into my ghost form and turned on my heels, ready to run like an Olympian.

"WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS!?" The Box Ghost cried out. Ignoring his confusion, I bolted towards the house. After phasing past the wall, I immediately dropped through the floor into the lab. Quickly scanning the metal interior, I found my saving grace.

Right there, on a lab table, sat the Fenton Thermos in all it's grey-and-green glory. I jumped at it, snatching the cylinder up. I quickly sprinted towards and up the stairs, phasing through the lab door, then the walls until I was back out on the front lawn.

The Box Ghost was still floating where he was when I left him, jaw dropped. It would have been pretty funny if this guy couldn't crush my skull with a simple cardboard box. Rather than continue our previous conversation, I just sucked the Box Ghost into the Thermos. He seemed too shocked to do much other than gape at me. After the ghost was successfully contained in the thermos, I capped it, then ran back into the lab. I released the Box Ghost back into the 'Underworld', as he called it (it actually sounded a lot cooler than 'Ghost Zone') and went back to my room.

I was too hopped up on adrenaline to be able to go to sleep at this point, so I began my homework. An analysis of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" for English, a map activity for Global, some Algebra problems, and a worksheet for Biology. Quite a workload. It seemed that my teachers loved to pile on the homework for weekends.

* * *

Sunday morning saw me drooling all over my English book report. Great. Now I have to rewrite it. But first, breakfast. I glanced at my alarm clock, which read 1:39. Okay then, lunch it is.

Speaking of which, I only ate once yesterday. I never even got to finish my sandwich! So why wasn't I absolutely starving? I chalked it up to another ghost thing, and moved on. I had enough control over my intangibility and invisibility so that they wouldn't randomly pop out, meaning I wouldn't have to put on another charade like yesterday, which coincidentally caused me not being able to finish my sandwich. I'm still slightly annoyed about that. Knowing Dad, he probably ate it after they didn't find a ghost. My poor, poor sandwich.

I was in the kitchen when my sister walked in. Jasmine Fenton, the uptight, know-it-all genius child who always made me feel like a disappointment, no matter what I did. Not that I told her any of this. She wouldn't care, anyways. With her fire red hair and arrogant ever-present smirk, she sauntered on over to me.

"So~," She drawled, "I saw your report card, Danny. Only a ninety in English? When I was in your grade, I got at least a hundred in everything. I'm disappointed, little brother- What would Mom and Dad say?" She taunted. I stayed silent, causing her to step a little closer to me.

"Aw, is widdle Danny too scared to say anything? What, afraid Mom and Dad are gonna ground you for being so stupid?"

She took my lack of response as a victory for her, before going to rummage around in the pantry. She popped back out with a bag of potato chips- my bag of potato chips, which I had been saving- before leaving the kitchen. I didn't say a word; Jazz could probably take anything I said and twist it around to humiliate me.

See, she was the smartest kid in Casper High School, and going for a psychology major in college, meaning she was very good at wordplay, like finding hidden meanings and whatnot. There were no doubts from anyone, student or teacher, that she would be the Valedictorian of her year.

She's also the most two-faced person I know. She acts like an absolute sweetheart to everyone at school, but ten seconds after we're home, she just becomes an absolute bitch.

Unfortunately, her insults hit a little too close to home. I had long ago accepted I would never step out of her shadow, and would likely be compared to my older sister all throughout high school. God forbid I ever had any of the same teachers she did- they would always expect so much more from me than I was capable of giving.

My parents were in the same boat. They showered Jazz with praise when she returned home with a straight-A+ report card, then gave me a light pat on the back when I showed only A's. If I was lucky, I would get a little "Good job, Danny-o!" from my Dad, who then go back to obsessing over Jazz or eating fudge.

I had heard of cases of child-favoritism from some of my classmates- who weren't actually talking to me, but instead complaining to their friends in my general vicinity (it wasn't my fault they're so damn loud!)- but I never used to expect it from my parents. I had figured they would be too caught up in their research to pay much attention to either kid; unfortunately I was wrong.

Oh well. That just another thing I would simply have to deal with. Whoever said life was great is an idiot.


	5. Chapter 5

**3rd Person P.O.V**

In the two weeks that followed his half-death and fights with the Box Ghost, Danny had practiced his newfound spectral abilities extensively. He could now prevent himself from randomly fading out of view, or phasing through things at inconvenient times- like with the bread. He could even control it, to a degree.

Besides invisibility and intangibility, Danny was picking up new powers left and right, like a magnet in a cup of paperclips. Ghost rays, ectoplasm manipulation, and most important of all, flight.

Combined with his long-dead dream of becoming an astronaut- since he doubted his family would really pay attention to what he wanted, and would instead send him to become a scientist of some sort- flight was definitely the hybrid's favorite ghost power.

Danny figured out some of his abilities after listening to his parent's rants/lectures, in which they tended to repeat previously stated information quite often. It worked in the teen's favor, since he got a bunch of ideas on what he could try out next.

The ghost rays were rather strange. They didn't go off randomly, like his intangibility and invisibility at one point. Instead, whenever Danny attempted to use them (in the safety of the air a few hundred feet above town), they shot out of strange places. Like that one time he basically shat a laser… Not the most pleasant thing ever. Anyways, his control over the ghost rays was steadily improving, as he was able to manipulate the size, strength, and speed to a greater degree. Including the ejection point, thankfully.

Ectoplasm manipulation- something he picked up after mentally reviewing the scuffle with the Box Ghost- was the power that provided Danny with the most guilty pleasure. Using it, he had obtained the dream of every lazy person ever; moving things with his mind. Turning off lights, getting the remote, picking up something he dropped, all of it and more could be done with just a little bit of ectoplasm.

It had taken some trial-and-error, but Danny eventually realized that, rather than simply willing the object to move, he had to make a leash with ectoplasm that would float over, grab said object, then move it. Danny had worked on reducing the size of the leash- since it used quite a bit of energy- to the point where it was basically invisible, and now seemed like true telekinesis.

Of course, Danny had to be a little bit discreet with his casual use of his powers. While his parents wouldn't be able to see a ghost if was right in front of them, Jazz was a bit more perceptive. Not by much, since she didn't normally care what Danny did, but enough that she noticed if something really strange happened. Such as Danny suddenly having the T.V remote in his hands, even though it _was_ across the room, _and she hadn't even seen him move_.

Of course, Jazz didn't really care. She just chalked it up to her not caring about Danny to the point where she could simply ignore his existence in short bouts. She had also been reading psychology textbooks 24/7, which she rationalized was probably what had distracted her, Besides, Danny normally was pretty quiet.

* * *

Right now, Danny was flying through the air, high above Amity Park, when he should be doing homework. This was starting to become an issue, but Danny couldn't bring himself to care. The fear of disappointing his parents further suddenly was nearly nonexistent, and combined with the euphoria of flight, school became the last thing on his mind.

Besides, the whole point of school was get good enough grades so you could get a nice job, then make enough money to survive. Survival included food, water, air, and shelter, most of which Danny didn't need to worry about.

He hadn't eaten in at least a week, and his stomach was not bothering him at all. Danny concluded that he no longer really _needed_ to eat. It would likely be a comfort thing. He still needed water, but that was alright- water's pretty cheap. Shelter had become a non issue, since the cold didn't bother him anyway. It was a very frosty November, yet Danny didn't even get chills.

Of course, his high cold tolerance- the result of a low body temperature of 93.1 degrees Fahrenheit- now presented the problem of an aversion to heat. Before the Portal incident, Danny could sleep very well with the heat blasting, curled up underneath two layers of blankets. These days, Danny woke up drenched in sweat if he tried that. To counteract it, the teen had closed the heating vent in his room, and would occasionally open his window. Danny dreaded what would happen in the summer, but that could be dealt with later.

This detachment carried onto more than just Danny's grades. The barbs from the bullies, the obnoxious teasing from his sister, being ignored by his parents, none of it really mattered. While Danny didn't really smile that much more, he wasn't always borderline depressed anymore. It was a definite improvement.

So, back to Danny, a few hundred feet above Amity Park. He had given some thought to simply flying away from all his annoyances, but decided against it. First off, where would Danny go? If he went to any relatives, they would immediately call up his parents and send him back home. He didn't have any friends he could go to, so that idea was shot down instantly. Living on the streets was by no means appealing, and there was the chance his family would report him as missing. That would be a whole hassle he didn't feel like dealing with.

Better to simply drift for now, then vanish when it wouldn't cause problems.

Danny was interrupted from his train of thought by a frosty gasp. A shiver violently racked his body, and his breath materialized in front of him, even more so than was normal for the mild November night. His ghost sense. Danny was taken aback by the suddenness. There had been no more ghost attacks since the Box Ghost two weeks ago so Danny assumed they weren't normal. The Fenton Portal was always closed, and the Box Ghost _did_ say that natural portals were somewhat rare.

Allowing the strange pressure in his skull to be his guide- making sure that said pressure rested between his eyes- Danny flew off to see what the problem was. A few minutes later, Danny saw a… metal ghost floating a few meters away from him. It had interlocking metal plates, and the screws/bolts used to hold it together were clearly visible. It also had a large mane of green fire, and a smaller goatee made of the same green fire. From the strange facial hair, Danny deduced that this ghost was a male. Glowing red eyes were in his sockets, eyes that were completely red. Danny could discern no pupil.

"Um, excuse me, sir. You, uh, wouldn't happen to be a metal ghost, would you?" Danny asked hesitantly.

The metal ghost examined him for a little less than a minute, his fiery hair waving about in a nonexistent wind.

"In regards to the second part of your question, yes, I am a ghost. A metal ghost, though? No. This," and the ghost knocked on one of the metal plates of his arm, producing a rather loud sound, "Is simply a battle suit."

Danny's eyebrow did a little dance. He was a little unsure how to feel about this new development, but settled on amazement.

"Woah, that's kinda cool. What kind of weapons does it have?" Danny asked curiously.

At this question, the battle-suited ghost gained a slightly arrogant seeming smirk. "Oh quite a few. Would you like to see them?" the fiery ghost asked. Danny nodded vigorously. The ghost's smirk widened until it was an actual smile.

After a few seconds of waiting, Danny was not disappointed. Blasters, launchers, and guns of all varieties popped out of many of the ghost's joints. A wrist way, shoulder mounted rocket launcher, and even what seemed like a jetpack were all clearly visible. Of course, these are only the things Danny could identify at a first glance, as a result of playing many video games (A lonely guy has to do _something_ with his time). The rest were things that Danny couldn't even begin describing, but they still seemed cool.

Danny's jaw had dropped in awe, and he was making strange noises. The reaction pleased the battle ghost. He obviously took great pride in his weaponry, most likely having made them himself, or with minimal help from another.

"Impressed, child? I made them myself, all for the purpose of aiding me in my quest to hunt down every type of creature in existence." The now revealed ghost hunter said smugly. Danny, on the other hand, didn't really like the thought of hunting things, but decided to ignore it. After all, to each his own, right? Then, he had an idea.

"Hey… uh, what's your name? I'm Danny, by the way."

"I am known as Skulker, the greatest hunter in the Underworld!" Danny was slightly put off by the metal ghost's sudden burst of pride.

"Right, Skulker. So, how many unique species have you come across?"

"An enormous amount, more than I can remember. Not many things can surprise me these days... I fear my time as a hunter may be over soon." Skulker finished solemnly.

Danny felt a bit of pity, before continuing on with his-in hindsight- poorly thought out plan.

"So~, have you ever come across a half ghost by any chance?"

"A half ghost? Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. Only the one, though. Unfortunately, he was far too powerful for me to vanquish, and I could not acquire his pelt… Why do you ask?"

Danny chuckled nervously, not meeting the hunter's gaze. Skulker's eyes narrowed.

"Do you mean to tell me you are half ghost as well, child!?"

"Listen, before you start jumping to conclusions, who's that one half ghost you met?"

"Enough talk! As of now, you are my prey! Prepare to be _skinned_ , whelp!"

With that lovely declaration, Skulker popped out one of his rocket launchers, and fired. More missiles than what should have been in the salvo flew at Danny, like a small flood of explosive death. So in shock was Danny at the complete mood-shift, that he barely reacted in time to avoid getting blown to pieces. Unfortunately, one of the rockets on the edge of the barrage clipped his shin, causing it to explode.

Luckily, Skulker had made those rockets with keeping his prey's pelt intact in mind, which would explain why the hybrid still had his leg.

Danny was flung several meters in the direction he first moved in, stopping because he slammed into a building. Seeing stars, Danny peeled himself off the brick wall.

"Owwww…" Danny groaned. His rubbed at his stinging, oddly wet, forehead. When Danny examined his white-gloved hand, he noticed a few drops of ectoplasm- ghost blood- on it. With a grimace, Danny turned around to focus on his enemy. Skulker had an insane grin on his face, like he got off on hunting.

" _Dude_ , what the fuck!?" Danny yelled at him. Skulker frowned.

"What do you mean, 'what the fuck'? DId I not tell you I hunt rare creatures, and did you not, in fact, reveal to me that you _are_ a rare creature?" Skulker asked slowly, like he was talking to an idiot. Danny facepalmed, because that really is was happened.

Danny opened his mouth to say something, then paused, as if he wasn't sure what to say. Skulker was leaning forward slightly, anxious to hear what he thought would be his prey's last words.

"Bye!" Danny shouted, then quickly turned on his heel and shot off like a bullet. Stunned at the abruptness of the half-ghost's departure, Skulker took a few seconds to register that his _prey was getting away!_ With a roar of anger, Skulker's jetpack wings shot out. He took off, his jetpack leaving behind a stream of ghostly fire.

The hunter ghost chased the half-ghost in a circuit around Amity Park. Danny would occasionally phase through a building in an attempt to throw Skulker off his trail, but the hunter didn't have a technologically advanced suit for nothing. The suit, of course, had an ectoplasmic entity tracker.

In a desperate bid to escape, Danny even phased through the ground, blindly flying as fast as he could, all the while keeping up his intangibility. Unfortunately, Skulker's tracker was very sophisticated. The hunter travelled above ground, while following Danny on his blind mad dash. After getting sick of it, though, Skulker simply blew up the street ahead of where Danny was going. The newly formed crater was very deep, deep enough that Danny flew out from one of the sides of the crater, and was then shot in the shoulder by a ghost ray.

The teen spun out from the sudden force, and crashed into the ground. Luckily, it was mostly dirt, so he wasn't _too_ shaken up. He was slightly dizzy from the speed at which he hit the ground though. Attempting to get back up, Danny stumbled a bit, before falling to his knees. His leg had been screwed up during that first barrage.

He heard the burning fuel of Skulker's jetpack, then a strange whirring. Turning around, Danny saw the hunter pointing a wrist ray at him.

"Any last words, Ghost Child?" Skulker asked.

Danny's mind was racing. He hadn't bothered even trying to fight back, because the seemingly superior weaponry of his enemy made that plan seem absolutely foolish. Doing some quick thinking, Danny did the thing he did best; fooling around.

"Yeah. What's that?" Danny pointed at an area behind the hunter. Stupidly, Skulker looked back to where the teen pointed.

"What's what? I don't see anything-" Skulker was interrupted by a fist crashing into his turned metal head. Slightly caught off guard, the fiery ghost turned back to see his prey shaking his hand.

"Ow! God damn, you have a hard head!" Danny shouted. Skulker smirked, and took aim with the wrist blaster that he was about to use a few moments ago. He was interrupted- again- by a green blast to the face. Skulker's head snapped back from the unexpected ghost ray.

Danny smirked. "That works much better!" With a wide grin, Danny continued to assault Skulker with ghost rays in various places; the face, shoulders, elbows, knees, feet- basically anywhere to knock the ghost off balance. One lucky shot hit the ghost in the bolt connecting his neck to his head. With a loud _POP!_ Skulker's head flew off.

Danny was rather stunned. He thought he had killed the ghost (nevermind the fact that ghosts are already dead). The half-ghost was simply trying to knock the hunter unconscious, not knock his head clean off! Panicking a bit, Danny barely noticed when Skulker's decapitated head started wiggling about. _Barely_.

But notice he did, and the young teen stared at the head for a few moments to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, when the head rocked again.

Moving closer, Danny heard high-pitched muttering, seeming to originate from inside the dismembered head. Leaning closer, the muttering got louder, and Danny was able to make out some choice words amongst other things. He picked up the head, and gave it a light shake. Amidst the clanking of bolts and other metal pieces, Danny heard wordless yelling in a high-pitched voice, a far cry from Skulker's normal low timbre.

The teen just stood there for a bit, staring into the no-longer-glowing red eyes of Skulker's decapitated head, trying to figure out what was happening. Finally, a plate at the bottom of the neck popped of, and out came two green little legs. The rest of the thing quickly followed, and the nearly shapeless blob fell the distance from the head to the floor- a meter or two.

"Um… Skulker, is that you?"

Danny took the responding rude hand gesture as confirmation.

"Alright, I'm just gonna… uh….go…"

And go he did, leaving the green blob to his devices amidst the wreckage of his battle suit.

* * *

Back at home, lying on his bed, Danny's face was scrunched up in pain. Only when he got back home, and the adrenaline of the fight with Skulker wore off, did Danny notice his hand hurt like a bitch, most likely from punching Skulker like a dumbass. His knee was also silently screaming at him. It felt as if he had banged his shin on the table, except the table was a fucking rocket in this case.

If Danny had to take a guess, he would say that his hand was at least fractured. He had punched Skulker with all his, admittedly pitiful, strength. He would also definitely have a nasty bruise on his shin by tomorrow. And the worst part?

Danny had school the next day.


	6. Chapter 6

_And the worst part? Danny had school the next day._

* * *

 **3rd P.O.V**

Wednesday morning saw Danny lying in bed at the early hour of six a.m. He had another half-hour before he had to start getting ready for school, but Danny dreaded it. His left hand, the one he used to punch Skulker in the face with, was bruised like a motherfucker. The skin at the point of impact was a deep purple, and the surrounding skin was a sickly yellow. It was slightly disgusting.

Oddly enough, despite how disgusting the wound seemed, that amount pain it evoked had drastically decreased. When Danny stretched his hand, he only notice a mild twinge of discomfort.

Was this the result of his newfound ghost abilities? Accelerated healing? Curious, Danny rummaged around in one of his dresser drawers, and pulled out a pocket knife. He flicked it open, pointed the blade at his palm, and steeled himself for the slight pain. With a quick motion, the knife slashed across his palm lightly, leaving a thin cut.

Putting away the knife, the teen observed his self-inflicted wound. It was already closing, albeit somewhat slowly. It was definitely a lot faster than normal, human healing, that's for sure.

Danny was now slightly excited. He would no longer have to suffer from the cruelty of paper-cuts! And his injuries from Skulker would likely fade before they were noticed too much.

He also wouldn't need to ask his parents to care him to the hospital, if his wrist was fractured as he suspected. _That_ would have raised some unsavory questions.

However, the bruise on his hand was glaringly obvious. If that wound was somewhere else, Danny wouldn't worry since he could easily hide it- and wearing gloves would have drawn more attention. It likely wouldn't heal before school started. Even if it was gone by second period that was one class too long.

A thought struck Danny. His powers usually worked better in his ghost form, and the increased healing factor was a result of his ghost powers. Therefore, his fast healing counted as a ghost power, and, following that line of thought, most likely was _much_ more efficient in his ghost form.

Deciding to test it out, since it could do no harm, the transformation rings flickered into existence with barely a thought. Nothing happened immediately, so Danny decided to do his normal morning routine. Only one issue; Danny couldn't do both.

He needed to change his clothes in his human form, and obviously couldn't do that in his ghost form.

"Hmm… what to do?" Danny muttered to himself, rubbing his chin with one hand. All of a sudden, Danny's head popped up.

"Well, I can't stay in this jumpsuit _forever_. It's kinda lame." Danny took a quick ten minute shower in his ghost form, turning intangible towards the end to get the water off of him quickly. He had taken off his inverted jumpsuit, and put it in his laundry basket. He would take care of that another day. After quickly brushing his teeth, Danny went to dig around in his closet.

"Now, what to wear?" Danny asked nobody in particular. He finally decided on a rather cool, in his humble opinion, looking outfit. It consisted of a white t-shirt with a black chinese dragon spanning the majority of the front, a red short-sleeved zip-up hoodie, left unzipped, and some short camo cargo pants. For shoes, he chose a pair he doesn't normally wear, simply because his old shoes still fit him; a pair of black converses. They fit almost perfectly, just a bit loose. In a few months, they would probably be a bit snug.

Standing in front of a mirror, Danny did a once-over of himself. Satisfied with his new threads, he nodded to himself, before examining his hand. In his ghost form, the previous purple color of his bruise became a toxic green, with the surroundings being a lighter shade of the same color. Whereas before, the bruise covered most of his knuckled and the backs of his fingers, it had been greatly reduced to about twenty-five percent of its previous size.

Danny smiled; he was starting to get the hang of this whole ghost thing- or at least understand it to a degree. The bruise on his hand had been his biggest concern, because it was the most visible. His battered shin would be covered up by his jeans, and Danny _really_ did not want to wear gloves or a long-sleeved shirt. He would overheat that way in seconds. Not pleasant.

Since Danny was a whole half-hour ahead of schedule, he could attempt to hang around in ghost form for a little longer, to ensure that the bruise would be nothing too visible. His shin was probably healing at about the same rate, which also meant that Danny would have no difficulty walking today, thankfully. The small cut on his forehead from slamming into a wall had long since healed at some point during the night, along with all the other various tiny scrapes and scratches.

With nothing to really do, Danny's mind turned to his conversation with Skulker the previous day. The hunter had said that there was another half-ghost, who was apparently powerful enough to easily beat Skulker. Considering the trouble the teen had with the metal ghost, he feared having to face off against this other hybrid anytime soon.

He also was anxious to know if Skulker were go and spread the news that another half-ghost had been made. What if the other one became curious, and came to scope him out? That probably wouldn't end too well.

At the same time, Danny _did_ want to meet the other hybrid. They likely had been a half-ghost for longer than him, if they were so powerful. Maybe they could help him control his powers, and possibly learn some new ones?

A blaring alarm ripped Danny from his thoughts, thoroughly scaring the shit out of him. He whipped his head towards the source, and found his alarm clock. The alarm was usually set to 6:30 a.m, and he had forgotten to turn it off when he woke up early.

Deciding he was healed enough, Danny transformed back to his human half. Quickly changing out of his pajamas, Danny gathered his school supplies before walking out his room. Down the stairs and into the kitchen, the teen came across his mother cooking breakfast- cooking being a term used loosely in this case. To be more accurate, Madeline Fenton was concocting some monstrosity that she expected her family to eat. Danny shuddered slightly.

He vividly remembered the last time she 'cooked', a few days ago. The rest of the time she was too busy down in the lab, or sleeping after two straight days in said lab. Her last attempt at making something edible had resulted in living hot dogs that tried to eat Danny's face off. Let that sink in.

' _Aren't those things still in the fridge?'_ Danny wondered silently. Out loud, though, the youngest Fenton said, "Ya know, mom, I don't think I'm hungry. I'll just get to school early."

Maddie looked at her son strangely; he never skipped meals (He also, like any other teen, never wanted to go to school early). Not that she knew of, anyways. Danny always ate what Maddie cooked, but only because it was the most food he could get his hands on after a day or two (if you didn't count toast). Danny ate his mother's cooking because he would starve otherwise, not because it was delicious. However, due to his ghost half greatly influencing his human body, he no longer required food. Danny would definitely be abusing this new development, if only to avoid his mother's atrocious cooking.

"Bye, Mom!" Danny called to her.

"Bye, honey. Have a nice day at school!" the woman called back.

Once Danny had crossed the threshold that separated Fenton Works from the rest of Amity Park, he immediately bolted into a nearby alley. Letting his blindingly white transformation rings wash over him, the half-ghost teen took to the skies. Only when he was a few hundred feet in the air did Danny notice something… different, about his clothes.

The color scheme was all wrong, yet looked pretty cool at the same time. His t-shirt was now black, the chinese dragon design white, the short-sleeved hoodie was a toxic green similar to his eyes and ecto blasts, and the cargo shorts were now black and white camo instead of the normal green and darker green. His shoes were not left unaffected by the sudden color shift. The primary black color turned white, and the secondary white color likewise became inverted. Danny surveyed his new colors with an approving stare. After the shock wore off, though, Danny decided to do a few circuits of Amity Park's airspace to pass the time.

A half-hour later, according to Danny's phone, he was walking through the halls of Casper High School, on his way to his locker. Unfortunately, just like every morning, the young half-ghost was accosted by his bully of seven years; Dash Baxter.

"Hey, Fen-turd! I failed my Algebra quiz yesterday, so guess what I'm doing this morning!" Dash borderline shouted at Danny.

"Uh… going to talk to your Algebra teacher to get help?" Danny replied half-heartedly. He knew _exactly_ where this was leading.

"No, that's for later. Instead, I'm gonna have a little fun!"

Five minutes later, Danny was finally able to get out of the locker Dash had shoved him in. He could have phased through it at any point in time, but he didn't want anyone to see him. Danny was still unable to go intangible and invisible at the same time in his human form. All in good time, though.

A minute after the late bell rang (to avoid any stragglers), Danny popped his head out from his cramped metal coffin. Looking left, right, and center, the teen determined that there was nobody else in the halls, and pulled the rest of his body through the locker door. He let out a soft sigh at being late, _again_ , for one of his classes. He would definitely have another detention this afternoon. Completing his interrupted trek to his locker, Danny quickly fished his books out of the locker using his intangible arm.

Walking without a care in the world, Danny finally arrived at his Algebra class. Mr. Falluca, the teacher of this class, stopped mid-sentence to look at the tardy teen.

"No pass, Mr. Fenton?"

Danny shook his head.

"Detention this afternoon, then."

Danny nodded his head, and quickly crossed the room to sit in his normal desk at the back of the room. It took an astounding seven minutes for the young half-ghost to become bored out of his mind. He began doodling on the back of the worksheet Falluca had handed out. The biggest thing on his mind definitely had to be his newfound ghostly powers. Since he couldn't draw his powers, and he _definitely_ didn't want to draw his ghost half, he drew something closely related to his powers; the enemies he fought with them so far.

Unknown to everyone, Danny was a very skilled artist. It was just one of the ways he passed the time, along with studying, sleeping, and playing video games. The Box Ghost and Skulker were both slightly difficult in their own right; the Box Ghost was surprisingly human, and drawing people was not Danny's strong point. Skulker, on the other hand, had many weapons which Danny wanted to include in his sketch, but could not remember what they looked like, considering he had been more focused on running for his life. So, he settled on a wrist blaster, shoulder rocket, and the hunter's jetpack.

Danny finished his drawing a few minutes before the bell rang, and slipped the paper into what had recently become a folder dedicated to his art. Since these classes could no longer hold Danny's interest for more than five minutes, he had taken to drawing excessively these days. Because of this, his folder held at least thirty drawings, and that was just after a few days. Danny felt pity for his folder, and the abuse it would have to endure when he inevitably stuffed it so full of papers that the folder would rip, as so many teens do these days.

When the bell finally rang, Danny was took his time packing, getting up, and leaving. He was so slow, in fact, that students who had this class next period started filing in. Dash happened to be one of them, but Danny was too focused on not focusing on anything to notice.

The two teens collided, and this little bump ignited Dash's temper, which was shorter than a vertically-challenged dwarf.

"Watch where you're goin', Fenton!" Dash said in his boisterous voice as he shoved Danny hard enough to make the boy topple over a few desks. Danny, and many of the spectating students, winced when they heard the back of his head crack against the floor quite loudly. Dash just looked very smug about it.

"MR. BAXTER! _What_ do you think you're doing in my classroom!?" Falluca shouted. The math teacher rushed over to make sure Danny was alright.

"Mr. Fenton, are you alright?"

Danny nodded.

"I think you should go to the nurse, just in case... That was a nasty fall just now."

Danny just shrugged. It didn't really hurt, a perk of being half-ghost. The noise startled him more than anything. Falluca stood up and went back over to his desk, to write a pass to the nurse for Danny.

"As for you, Mr. Baxter, you will be having detention this afternoon."

"But Mr. Falluca, we have a game on Friday! The team needs me at practice!"

There was a tense silence, as Falluca weighed his options. He could give Dash detention, but if Casper High lost the game on Friday, the higher-ups would have his head. The math teacher decided to go a different route.

"I will be talking to Ms. Tetslaff about your behavior, Mr. Baxter. Now, take your seat."

Danny sighed. He knew how this dance went. Dash would blatantly attack him in front of a teacher, would get threatened, then get off with a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, the star quarterback had far more value than a nobody from a family of mental-patients, at least for Casper High.

Taking the pass from Falluca, Danny walked out of the math room. He crumbled up the pink slip of paper and threw it into a passing garbage can, then continued on his way to his next class; English.

Danny didn't necessarily hate English, like many of his peers. He didn't particularly love it, either. He simply didn't care about it. His teacher, Mr. Lancer was one of the most chilled out people Danny ever knew, with the exception of when someone fought in his class. For the most part, Lancer allowed the students to do whatever the hell they wanted, so long as it didn't disturb the rest of the class. The English teacher was one of the only teachers in Casper High (and probably the world) to understand that he couldn't force a student to learn if they really didn't want to.

Danny usually spent his English classes since the Portal incident listening to music and drawing random things, and it wouldn't be any different today. Since he had drawn Skulker and the Box Ghost last period, Danny decided to stick on the topic of the paranormal. The majority of the period was spent drawing the Ghost Portal which changed his life forever, and a few of his parents' inventions.

After a few more drawings were shoved into his art folder, the bell rang, and Danny quickly left the room just to avoid a repeat of last period with any other jocks. After English was Gym, which irritated Danny. He shared this class with Dash, and a couple of the other football jocks who usually tormented him. The class would always play dodgeball, because Dash and the rest of his cronies would beg the coach, Ms. Tetslaff. They came up with excuses about how it helped with their hand-eye coordination, just so they could peg the nerds, geeks, and freaks in the face with a not-so-soft softball. Had the teacher been anyone else, Danny would have simply sat out to avoid dealing with the jocks, but Tetslaff was ruthless. In her class, you couldn't just show up to get a grade; you had to actively participate.

Danny always hated dodgeball. The more athletic kids, in this case the jocks, would all be on one team, while the nerds and geeks were on the other. Even worse, the jocks continuously targeted Danny, just because Dash didn't like him. It was almost as if they couldn't think for themselves, and did whatever Dash told them to do.

Today, Danny skipped waiting in the locker room, where Dash would have more opportunity to push him around (and also to avoid the smell), and instead waited in front of the gym doors. A few other kids did the same; they were mostly other kids bullied by the jocks, or the occasional neutral who also couldn't stand the smell of B.O.

It took a few minutes for Tetslaff to exit her office and open the gymnasium doors, but she did eventually. Once open, the class filed in and lined up for Tetslaff to take attendance. That also took a few minutes, because the jocks had snuck in a football and wouldn't stop fooling around. Just like every gym class.

When she was done with attendance, Tetslaff ordered the class to send up two team leaders (Dash and an orange haired nerd named Mikey), then the class was split just like it normally was; athletic kids one team, everyone else on the other.

Within thirty seconds of Coach Tetslaff blowing the whistle to signal the start of the game, half of the geek squad was out. The jocks were being brutal as usual, pegging the smaller kids in the face with softballs. Surprisingly, no glasses broke.

Danny was standing a little bit away from the crowd, so that he wouldn't bump into anyone when the jocks inevitably noticed him. And notice him they did, when Dash shouted, "There's Fenton! Get 'im!"

Deciding he didn't like getting smacked in the face by anything, Danny waited for the first jock to throw a ball. Today, it was Dale, a dark-skinned football player, who started the barrage. Danny eyed the ball as it 'sped' towards him (his ghost powers had made his vision beyond perfect, and as a result he could easily track the ball as it flew at him). He waited until the last possible second, when the ball was inches from his face, then bobbed his head to the left. The teen's right hand came up, and caught the ball. Danny had the sphere in a vice-grip, arresting all it's momentum, before dropping it. He had done it quickly enough that his maneuver didn't technically count as catching the ball.

"FENTON! YOU'RE OUT!" Coach Tetslaff bellowed. Danny grinned; his plan had worked. He didn't get hit in the face, and got out so he didn't have to deal with the rest of the other team coming after him.

Speaking of the other team, Danny cast a glance at them. Dale was standing there, mouth open as he tried to understand what just happened. No doubt he was wondering how the hell wimpy little Fenton had such a quick reaction time.

Unfortunately, the fact that he was out didn't deter Dash from trying to nail him with a ball. Said jock threw threw a ball at Danny's head- and would have hit dead-on- if Danny didn't duck out of the way of that one too. He didn't bother catching it this time.

Dash ended up with the same stupid look on his face as Dale.

Danny walked away, heading to the sidelines to stand next to the rest of the kids that got out.

Everybody was focused on the boring game still being played, and as a result, nobody noticed his gasp and the subsequent wisp of blue vapor that came out of his mouth. Quickly walking over to Coach Tetslaff, he asked, "Hey, Coach, can I go to the bathroom real quick?"

Tetslaff gave him her usual angry look, before giving a quick nod. Danny speed walked across the gym to the locker room doors, opened them calmly, and then bolted as soon as he was around the corner. He ran to the bathroom stalls, locked himself in one, and instantly transformed into his ghost half. Using intangibility and invisibility, Danny was outside of the school building within seconds.

Looking around, he spoke aloud, since the chances of anyone hearing him were minimal.

"Now, now… who or what triggered my ghost sense?"

Hearing a strange _whirring_ noise, behind him, Danny turned, only to see nothing. Nothing except for the ecto blast speeding towards him like a bullet, that is.

Quickly calling upon his intangibility, Danny watched as the ectoblast passed through his midsection. Confused as to where the blast came from, Danny kept his intangibility up, while at the same activating his invisibility. If Danny couldn't see his enemy, then the ghost wouldn't be able to see him, or so Danny thought.

When Danny was completely invisible, he noticed he could now see the ghost which attacked him; a familiar metal ghost. Skulker.

Thinking that he and Skulker had flipped their invisibility on and off, respectively, at the same time, Danny flew closer to take advantage of his opponent supposedly not seeing him. However, the young half-ghost was in for quite the surprise when Skulker lifted his arm, and pointed a wrist ray straight at him. The hunter fired, and Danny dove out of the way. Skulker followed up with more ecto blasts, which Danny dodge all of except for the last one.

The ecto blast had quite a bit of force behind, and it sent Danny crashing into the roof of Casper High, cracking the concrete slightly. Rubbing his head, the teen sat up and groaned.

"What the fuck? Wasn't I invisible?" Danny asked aloud.

"You were, young hybrid. What you did not know is that invisible ghosts can see other invisible ghosts. Something about light wavelengths being perceived by the invisible eye differently… But anyway, rookie mistake, whelp." Skulker helpfully growled. The hunter raised his wrist ray once more "Now, prepare to be SKINNED!" Not so helpful now. And, ew.

Danny quickly turned intangible and sunk through the high school's roof, into the interior of the building. He also used invisibility to avoid being seen by his peers. High schoolers were horrible gossips, and Amity Park was a relatively small town. If anyone saw a ghost at school, then his parents would know within the next two days, tops.

Quickly making his way through the walls, halls, and even a bathroom (where two kids were doing something not so appropriate or school) Danny finally flew through the final wall separating him from the outside. Deciding he _really_ did not want to be seen, the hybrid flew up and away from Casper High School.

When Danny was flying over Amity Park park, he heard the telltale whine of Skulker's jetpack, closer than before. Turning on a dime, the hybrid flew straight at the hunter, catching the metal ghost off guard. Skulker grinned, thinking that his prey had finally given up, but he was in for a surprise.

Danny kept flying at Skulker, closer and closer, until he turned intangible and flew _through_ the ghost. Startled, the hunter took a second to comprehend what had just happened, but by then, Danny had turned one-eighty and began bombarding his foe with ecto blasts. Danny waited a moment between each blast, to give his opponent enough time to turn around so he could get at the weak spot in Skulker's neck, but he was never given that chance. The hunter suddenly turned invisible and intangible, throwing the teen off balance..

Danny quickly remembered what Skulker had told him just moments before, and followed the ghost into the plane of invisibility. He was _not_ expecting to see a metal fist inches from his face. With no time left to react, Danny took the blow- a heavy cross- and was launched backwards, careening through the sky. His brain was rattled from the force behind the punch, and thus the hybrid was disoriented enough so that he hit could not enable his gravity-defying flight. Danny hit the grassy ground of the park with a loud yelp. It took him a few seconds to sit up, but by then he heard an electronic whining; Skulker's weaponry.

Danny attempted to dodge, but the sudden movement brought on a bout of dizziness. Unable to move, Danny was a sitting duck as Skulker powered up his weapon- a salvo of six shoulder mounted rockets in this case.

It would take a few seconds- seconds that Danny didn't have right now- to become reoriented. WIth no other choice, Danny threw out his arm and began firing ecto blasts at random. Unfortunately, every single one was _way_ off target. Skulker fired, and Danny took the brunt of the explosion.

A large cloud of dust and smoke exploded from the impact zone, and out of it came flying the young hybrid. He was moving at quite a high speed, fast enough that he bounced three times on the grass and still had enough momentum to barrel through a tree that was misfortunate enough to be in Danny's way.

Luckily, the tree stopped Danny from tearing through the park. Unluckily, Danny's brain may have actually been knocked out of place from that sudden stop. At the very least, he had to have a concussion and a _lot_ of broken bones. However, he didn't feel any pain right now- adrenaline is crazy. Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Danny stood up, without any extreme dizziness this time, thankfully. He quickly regained his bearings, noticing the uprooted tree, craters from where he bounced, and the large dust cloud from the explosion impact. Out from the dissipating cloud came Skulker, looking very smug, until he saw Danny standing tall.

The hunter's smug smirk was wiped from his face, and was replaced in favor of widened eyes. Danny took advantage of Skulker's momentary shock, and shot off towards the metal ghost like a bullet. Skulker jerked backwards,then activated his jetpack to move out of the way, but he was too late. Danny began firing off ecto blasts like there was no tomorrow; unfortunately, he had to sacrifice power for speed.

The barrage worked, though, since it kept Skulker from moving too much. Danny kept shooting with his right hand, while at the same time charging up an ecto blast in his left. Danny let the blast charge for about fifteen seconds, before firing it off at Skulker's neck. It connected with pinpoint accuracy, and the hunter's head went flying off.

Since he didn't have the Fenton thermos on him again, Danny settled for a different way of disposing of Skulker; grabbing the metal head, the teen flew high up into the sky, before _punting_ the object like a football, using every ounce of his ghostly enhanced strength. Danny didn't bother trying to see where the head flew off to. He was too focused on not dropping out of the sky like a rock. Those rockets had really messed him up, and all the pain he should have been feeling moments ago finally caught up with him.

Slowly and sloppily, Danny descended back to the ground. When he touched down, the white transformation rings popped into existence, but the half-ghost quickly shut those down. He hurt, _a lot_ , and if he wanted to heal in a timely fashion, he would have to stay in his ghost form. Plopping down on the grassy floor and leaning against a tree, Danny simply watched the passing clouds while waiting for his body to mend.

The teen poked at his chest, where most of his pain was originating from, and damn near passed out from the sudden rush of agony. He also noticed his chest was softer than it normally was, as if the bones that were supposed to be there simply weren't. The half-ghost let out a shuddering breath at the slowly disappearing pain, and relaxed his body.

Danny focused on staying as still as he possibly could, to avoid blacking out, in case being unconscious made him become human again. That would not bode well for his advanced healing.

The teen sat in the park for half an hour, cloud watching, before he attempted to move once more. He noted with pleasant surprise that the was only a dull ache in his chest, which would probably disappear by tomorrow. He was also _very_ hungry, likely a side-effect of using so much energy.

Of course, Danny picked now to remember a crucial piece of information; he had been in the park for near to an hour, between the fighting and healing. Meanwhile, school was still going. Without him there. His parents would be _so_ pissed.


	7. Chapter 7

That afternoon, Danny walked into his house, full of trepidation. He had gotten back to school as quick as he could, just barely missing the end of P.E, and had to deal with a throbbing chest throughout the rest of the day for his troubles.

He hadn't gotten called to the office, or received a detention for skipping, but he figured they would have at least called home. Tetslaff was a no-nonsense woman, and would definitely not take kindly to having her class-regardless of the fact that it wasn't an actual class- being blown off.

And yet, when Danny entered the threshold of the Fenton household, there were no blue and/or orange clad parents threatening to break his eardrums with their scolding. The teen didn't relax, though, and instead began thinking of ways to lessen the punishment.

First things first, doing his homework, something he hadn't done in a while. Next, the chores; take out the trash, wash the dishes, empty the biohazard waste bin. You know, normal housekeeping stuff.

As the hours passed, and the hybrid kept to his room (not even leaving when his ghost sense went off), anxiously awaiting the moment of confrontation. Deciding that he would go crazy like this, Danny chose to man up and take the scolding on his own terms. Meaning, he would do a circuit of the house and see if his parents came after him.

While walking through the kitchen, Danny caught sight of the house phone. Curiosity gnawing at him, he strode over, and quickly shuffled through the missed messages. There were none, meaning his parents had either been at home and picked up the phone, or the school simply didn't call. Hoping for the latter, but prepared for the former, Danny silently 'walked' over to the basement door, utilizing what little bit of his flight he could in human form to create a floating effect. Listening carefully, he heard his parents talking, but they were just out of his range.

Quickly making himself invisible, Danny continued down the steps, looking around to make sure he didn't kick something by accident.

His parents were crouched over a table, sparks flying as Jack welded something to something else, while Maddie was talking.

"Oh, nope hon, you need to put that there, and connect that wire, then…"

Danny stopped listening, realizing they weren't talking about anything important to him. Traveling back up to his room, the hybrid flopped down on his bed, simply thinking.

His parents likely hadn't left the lab in a while, excited as they were about the portal finally working. At least, they hadn't for the past two weeks since Danny's death, so the teen saw no reason for that to change now. There was no phone downstairs, for fear of it ringing at the wrong time, causing the scientists to jostle some extremely explosive chemicals. Therefore, there was no way they had heard anything from the school.

Jasmine wouldn't skip class to save her life- she had a reputation to uphold, after all. She also did just about everything she could for extracurricular activities; tutoring, acting in school plays, clubs, volunteering, Student Council President duties, studying, haggling with colleges to get the best deal, etc. She normally got home at about eight in the evening, meaning there was no way in hell she could have picked up the phone, either.

The only option left was that the school simply didn't call. Then again, Danny realized, it was Casper High. Kids skipped all the time, or didn't show up in the first place. If a phone call was sent home for every missing student, the office workers would lose it. He was in the clear.

Letting loose a huge sigh of relief, Danny decided to go flying for a bit to clear his head. Quickly summoning the halos, he transformed into his ghost half. His clothes had mended from his run in with Skulker, oddly enough. There weren't even any blood stains…

Confused, Danny rummaged through his dresser drawer quickly, pulling out the knife he nicked from the kitchen, then slashing himself right down the chest. Ignoring the pinprick of pain, Danny focused on the injury. He also didn't pay attention to the ectoplasm that splattered on his carpet, after he noticed it vanished after a few moments. Likely because there wasn't enough to sustain itself for long periods of time in the foreign environment, or something equally scientific.

The skin on his chest closed up within seconds, leaving a rip in his shirt, which then repaired itself in a fashion similar to his skin.

Danny realized that his clothes had somehow become made of ectoplasm. It was likely because they vanished when he transformed back into a human, and therefore counted as part of his ghost half.

Silently cheering at never needing to replace his awesome threads- clothes that looked this cool were expensive- Danny turned intangible and invisible, then shot off through the wall and into Amity Park's airspace.

About ten minutes into the joyride, Danny's ghost sense went off. When the puff of condensed breath vanished, the half-ghost felt the now-familiar pressure inside his skull. Allowing the sense to direct him, Danny flew off to confront the spook.

The teen was secretly hoping to find Skulker, feeling the need to do violence to get rid of the remaining jitters in his system, but was disappointed when he ran into a more bestial ghost. Or rather, was run into by a bestial ghost. Literally.

The specter came out of nowhere, slapping the hybrid aside with it's large head, before letting out an explosive noise. Once he had righted himself in midair, luckily before he hit a building or anything, Danny observed the newcomer.

It seemed to be a very large, very pissed, very green, pitbull.

"Holy shit."

Apparently the dog didn't like the sound of his voice, because it rocketed at him like a missile. Turning invisible, Danny shuddered a bit as the animal flew through him, a feeling he had yet to get used to. Whipping around, the half-ghost fired an ecto blast at the dog, trying to get a feel for how bad this fight would be.

When the dog took the blast right in the face, and simply shook off the effects, Danny groaned. He would probably be spending much of tonight healing.

The dog was, as previously mentioned, very large, which would normally cause it to be slower. Unfortunately, in the air, running speed meant nothing. All that extra muscle only meant Danny would be getting tossed around like a chew toy.

Deciding to take the initiative, Danny rushed at the ghost, shooting small ecto blasts along the way. They only seemed to annoy the beast, because it growled louder, before charging at him as well.

Turning intangible, the hybrid attempted to get behind it. Unfortunately, the pitbull had learned from it's previous mistake, and turned intangible too. Unprepared for this, thinking he was dealing with a dumb animal, Danny couldn't move fast enough to escape the creature's bite; his leg was crushed by the dog's massive jaws.

"Fuck!" Danny shouted. Ectoplasm splattered all over the ghost's face, but it was ignored. Many cracks were heard as bones broke, and the dog shook its head, threatening to tear the limb off altogether. Tears sprang to the hybrid's ghost, which were quickly blinked away, and just when he thought the connective tissues would finally give, the beast let go. Unfortunately, the momentum of the swinging caused Danny to go careening through the air.

Unstable as he was, Danny couldn't regain control, and ended up crashing into the asphalt road, leaving a small crater. Poor commuters. Luckily, he landed on his back, so he didn't have to deal with the disorientation of a concussion. Just a lot of pain.

Slowly climbing to stand on his one good foot, Danny quickly hopped up to float. The pain in his leg lessened, barely, as it no longer had to support any weight.

Shakily flying up, Danny scowled at the dog ghost.

"Alright, you wanna play rough? Then let's play rough!" He shouted at the ghost, causing it to roar at him. His eardrums were slightly rattled, but he ignored it, instead choosing to rush at the dog once more.

Danny made as if he was going to pull the same maneuver before, then immediately swerved and hooked his hand onto the dog's collar. Even though it was a spiked collar, it was luckily large enough that the spike had a fair amount of space between them.

Channeling a large amount of ectoplasm to his hand, Danny grimaced in victory as he heard the dog's skin begin to sizzle. Unfortunately, he was again caught off guard when the further enraged beast started bucking like a bull. The teen thought his shoulder was going to get dislocated from the powerful movements, but he held on like a champion. His injured leg was also getting jostled quite a bit, causing him to grit his teeth in pain.

The dog's skin was beginning to blacken, and the darker said skin got, the less of a fight the ghost put up.

Ear-shattering roars eventually degenerated into pitiful whimpers, and the massive pitbull began glowing a brilliant green.

Concerned that it was going to blow up, or perhap unleash an area-of-effect attack, Danny quickly relinquished his grip and turned off his flight. Allowing gravity to pull him away from the possible danger, Danny watched as the glowing ghost did not release the energy, but instead began to shrink.

Curious, the teen floated closer cautiously. Where there was once a raging beast, there was now… a puppy?

It was green, had red eyes, and had the same spike collar as his previous foe, but the hatred it directed at him previously was now gone. The little ghost had a massive black spot on the side of its neck, and it looked to be on the verge of running away.

Deciding the little thing had given him enough trouble, Danny sped towards the puppy, once more catching it by the collar. It began whining nonstop, and was trembling enough to cause mini-earthquakes.

Danny frowned, heart softening a little at the obvious terror the dog displayed.

"Hey, little buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you anymore. I just needed you to calm down a bit, before someone a lot weaker."

'Like me.' He thought with a grimace. His leg had already started to mend- thank God for super ghost healing- but it would take a while.

Unfortunately, simple words would not calm the animal down. It kept right on shivering, which made Danny feel guilty, regardless of the fact that he had only acted in self-defense. He began to pat the dog on its flank, which at first caused it to freeze up in horror. It eventually calmed down, though, and by then the hybrid had descended so he was sitting at the edge of a roof. He sat half-cross-legged, while his injured leg hung over the side of the building.

"I've always wanted a dog… you got a name, little buddy?"

The puppy let out a small yip, which Danny unfortunately could not translate. Instead, he grabbed the pendant hanging off the front of its collar. The pendant had a capital A, surrounded by orbiting dots. Like an atom. He had seen that logo somewhere…

Turning the pendant over, Danny frowned upon noting that it was blank.

"Well, guess I'll just have to come up with one myself. Hmm, what to name a ghost dog?"

His mind flashed back to a cheesy horror movie he had once watched, years ago. It was about a dog who got bit by a bat, then went crazy and starting fucking people up… Danny screamed whenever he saw a dog for the next month.

"Okay, how about Cujo?"

The now named Cujo barked happily, seeming to have forgotten about their whole fight. Taking a quick glance at the dog's neck, he noticed that the burn mark was gone. It probably stopped caring once the wound healed. Man, what a dumb dog… But still adorable.

His leg wound was about halfway healed, if the rapidly diminishing pain was anything to go by.

"By the way, what are you?" Danny muttered to himself, as he lifted the dog up to check it's gender. And… Yup. Cujo is a dude.

"What were you doing here anyways, little buddy? Got lost?"

Cujo tilted his head, as if considering the question and attempting to remember. Unsure if the dog understood, Danny settled for sitting and petting his new friend. Unexpectedly, the dog starting squirming, not really trying to run but simply get out of his arms.

Complying with the silent request, Danny relinquished his grip on Cujo. The puppy shot up into the air, then immediately turned around, and started tugging on the edge of his pants.

"You want me to go with you?" Cujo barked happily in response, so Danny shrugged his shoulders and began floating, making sure to keep his mangled leg from bumping into the other. He waited a second for Cujo to understand that he was willing to follow.

Very excited, Cujo began bouncing, ran in a circle around Danny, then shot off in a seemingly random direction. Chuckling, the teen followed, injured leg trailing behind him.

The two ghosts flew for several minutes- during which Danny's leg managed to at least remake the bones- before Cujo finally slowed down in front of a huge building with a familiar logo; an A being orbited by dots.

"Wait, Cujo! Come here, boy!" Obeying, the dog floated over, and began licking Danny's face.

"Ah, gross! Stop! Heel!"

After a few moments, the pitbull finally calmed down. The hybrid carefully examined the pendant on his collar, and saw it did indeed match up with the insignia on the building.

"Is this the place you wanted to see? Axion Labs?" A happy yip replied. "Well… alright. Lead the way, I guess."

And lead the dog did. Cujo took off like a speeding bullet, catching Danny off guard, until he kicked it into high gear as well. The dog appeared to be about to crash into a wall, which Danny was not all too concerned about, considering that they were ghosts and could phase through things. Until they couldn't.

Cujo had bounced off a fluorescent green wall-which most definitely hadn't been there before- quickly followed by Danny, who couldn't slow down in time. The dog let out a little whimper of pain, while the half-human let out a similar groan. His nearly healed leg was jostled, sending a sharp nail of pain up his spine. Luckily, his healing went into overdrive or something, because the discomfort faded quickly.

Testing his leg, Danny nodded his head in satisfaction when it almost didn't hurt at all.

"What the fuck?" Focusing back on the matter at hand, the hybrid looked back up to the wall he had hit. He saw that the wall was actually one part of a cube, which had appeared in the night sky and enclosed the facility. Walking up to it, Danny laid a hand on the shield- he was familiar enough with these types of things, considering his parents' obsession- before quickly jerking backwards when he was shocked.

"Ouch! Why does Axion Labs have an electrified ghost shield? I thought they made human tech…" The teen muttered to himself. Cujo was busy barking his head off at the wall, as if that would help. Unfortunately, it did nothing. That didn't stop the pup, though.

Realizing they weren't going to get anywhere with this, Danny scooped up Cujo, who continued to bark. It was like an adorable alarm clock- that is to say, very annoying.

"Cujo, quiet! We can't do anything right now, so let's just come back later."

Cujo did not listen. He just kept right on barking, slowly growing louder and deeper in pitch. He was also growing, eventually to the point where Danny could no longer restrain the dog.

By now, Cujo had reverted to his large form, and started headbutting the ghost shield. Sparks were flying, but the pitbull seemed to enraged to notice.

"Cujo! Stop!" Danny shouted desperately. He didn't want to think what would happen if guards armed with ecto weapons came out to check on the commotion- or worse, they simply upped the voltage on the ghost shield. He had managed to grow attached to the dog, despite their brutal fight and short time together. He probably had a weak spot for animals or something.

Flying up behind the raging beast, Danny began tugging on Cujo's collar in a desperate attempt to stop him. The dog ignored him, using his extreme strength to shake off the hybrid's efforts, and continued pounding on the green wall. The crackling ectoplasm cube began fizzling uncertainly.

After a minute of the futile struggle, Danny realized he would have to do something far more attention catching.

"I didn't wanna have to do this again, Cujo!" The teen began feeding ectoplasm into his hands, about to recreate his strategy from earlier. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the ghost shield chose that moment to crack. Surprised at the sudden turn of events, Danny released the ghostly energy he was gathering, allowing it to sink back into his energy reserves.

The hybrid simply watched as Cujo took only a few more seconds to completely break through the shield, then immediately shrank into his adorable form. The top of his head was slightly singed, though the dog didn't seem to notice, which tickled Danny's funny bone a bit. He let out a small chuckle, that quickly turned into a groan of annoyance. Cujo had phased through the brick wall during the teen's lapse of concentration.

Following, the boy called out, "Cujo, wait up!" The dog did not wait. Instead, Danny had to rely on his ghost sense, which conveniently went off at that moment.

Following the instinctive pull through several walls, and many labs filled with all types of futuristic stuff, Danny found Cujo with his face on the ground, making strange… noises.

Was that a squeak?

"Cujo? Uh, whatcha got there, bud?" The dog's head whipped around, startling him at the sudden movement. Danny walked a bit closer, to get a proper look at the thing Cujo held in his mouth.

"A… squeaky toy?" Indeed, the dog held a rubber duck in his mouth, which somehow held up to his now-incredible ghost strength.

"Alright, I guess. Let's just go home now. I don't wanna get caught by any guards-"

"A bit late for that, ghost! Get your hands up!"

Spinning around, Danny caught sight of a large, burly man aiming a gun at him. The gun's green fuel tank gave it away as an ecto weapon.

The man himself was easily a head taller than the hybrid, and far more muscular. Also very hairy, considering the fact that Danny could see his arm air from about twenty feet away. He had quite the impressive mustache, too.

Using his better-than-perfect vision, granted by his ghost powers, Danny focused in on the man's identification badge. The man's name was apparently Damon Gray.

"Um, hey there. Listen, there's no need to be hostile-"

"Be quiet!" Damon yelled. "You and your dog have broken the ghost shield surrounding Axion Labs, and are therefore too much of a threat to let leave."

Wow. Talk about cliché. Danny was getting slightly irritated. This 'Damon Gray' was very rude. Just because he was a ghost (or almost one), the man hadn't even let him finish his peace-offering!

"Hey, don't you know it's rude to shoot first and ask questions later?"

"Doesn't matter, so long as it keeps me alive."

"You really think we're gonna kill you? Dude, I'm basically a kid!"

"That monster behind you begs to differ."

Confused, Danny swiveled his head, only to get an eyeful of green. He leaned back slightly to stare Cujo right in his completely red eyes. Funny enough, the dog still held the squeaky toy in between his massive jaws, with gentleness that wouldn't be associated with an animal of this size. Danny sighed.

"Cujo, down boy!" Said dog looked at him, and cocked his head in the adorable way that only dogs could, even if they were massive monsters. The two ghosts stared at each other, before Cujo finally obeyed and shrank.

Danny grinned, scooping up the dog in his arms, and patting him on the head. "Good boy! I'll make sure to get you a nice treat… what do ghost dogs eat anyways?"

An ectoblast shot past his ear, causing the hybrid to duck in case more were coming. Cujo growled in his arms, but the teen squeezed him in reassurance.

"Hey!"

"Stop acting like you're gonna leave, ghost. I'll destroy you!" With a shout, Damon Gray rushed forward, shooting off more rays of ghost energy along the way. Danny simply turned invisible, slightly amused at the turn of events. He let out a small laugh when Damon foolishly attempted to swing at Danny, only to pass through just like his blasts.

"Well, Mr. Gray, I don't think you'll be destroying anyone today." The hybrid sounded a bit too smug for Damon's liking, prompting him to pull out a radio and call for help.

"I've got a two ghosts here in Sector 4! They're the ones responsible for taking down the ghost shield; one humanoid and one dog! I repeat, Sector 4! Send backup immediately!"

"Ooh, some more guys with blasters. Didn't you learn anything just now, Mr. Gray?"

"Yeah, I learned I'm gonna need some bigger guns!"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Alright, you go regroup with your little friends. I'm gonna go get Cujo that treat I promised. Later, Mr. Backup." With that parting shot, Danny turned and phased through the wall, his dog still in his arms.

Damon scowled at the wall the ghost had phased through. He picked up his radio and dialed in to the security channel.

"The ghosts have escaped."

* * *

"Heh. Can you believe that guy, Cujo? He's all 'I'll destroy you, ghost' but then he couldn't even touch me!" Danny trailed off into peals of laughter. "Oh god, he must be so angry!"

The teen quieted, content to simply float around Amity Park, arms behind his head, while Cujo sat on his chest and attempted to mangle the rubber duck. Fortunately, the duck really was quite resilient. A lesser toy would have been shredded by now, leaving Danny to listen to Cujo's sad whimpers.

Every couple minutes Cujo would get a bit overzealous in his reunion with his toy, and the duck would fall. The dog would then let out a yip of panic, dive after it, then land back on Danny's chest once the toy had been recovered. It was quite amusing, though Danny didn't understand how Cujo could stay entertained by the same thing for at least a half hour.

'Then again, I've been watching him for the same amount of time… wonder what that says about me?'

Of course, that wasn't the only thing he had been doing. The hybrid had been watching the stars, making note of which constellations were present and which ones were likely covered by light pollution.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny noticed the star-filled night sky gradually give way to daylight. Turning his head, the teen watched the sun rise, while he continued to float above Amity Park.

He felt at peace. Nothing could bother him here. Not school, not Jazz, and definitely not Dash Baxter.

* * *

:P I live. Apparently, people have somehow been finding this story recently even though I haven't updated it in a while. So, hello to you new people, and also hello to you old people who probably thought I was dead or something. Don't worry, I live. For now.


	8. Chapter 8

Danny was right. Dash Baxter couldn't bother him at all when the hybrid was flying. Of course, that didn't stop the jock at school. Or the jock's jock friends.

It was only second period, yet Danny had been tripped multiple times, shoulder-checked in the halls, stuffed into a locker, _and_ punched in the face by Dash. That last one was because Dash had failed the history test from last week- no surprise there- and was particularly angry. Good thing for ghostly durability and healing, or his cheek would probably still be bruised.

As was usual for second period English, Lancer droned on about some play they were supposed to finish over the last few days (Something about dolls?). Danny obviously didn't do it, but he decided to switch gears, for at least a little bit, and listen in to the class discussion.

"Now then, class, can anyone tell me what Ibsen was trying to convey when he had Nora walk out on Torvald?"

A pale hand raised, somewhere toward the middle of the class. Glancing over, Danny saw it belonged to the pseudo-Goth Sam Manson (She claimed she wasn't actually goth, because it was "too mainstream").

"Ibsen was trying to say that women shouldn't have to deal with the incompetence of men!"

Ever the activist, that one.

The discussion devolved from that point into an argument between the feminist females and the guys who wanted to defend themselves. Danny, realizing he made a huge mistake, just plugged his headphones in like usual and pulled out a piece of paper to start a new drawing.

Tapping his pencil to his puffed-out cheek, Danny stared at the blank paper as he pondered what to sketch. He finally decided on drawing Cujo, that adorable pup- who was probably currently curled up on Danny's bed, snoozing away.

Danny had just put the tip of the pencil to the paper, when he received a shove to the shoulder, causing him to snap the lead (graphite, whatever). Fairly annoyed, Danny turned to the perpetrator with a scowl on his face, removing his left earbud so he could hear.

His eyes met with a lot of purple and black. Sam Manson.

"Um, hi? Can I help ya?" Danny asked.

Manson raised an eyebrow at him, as if she _didn't_ just interrupt him.

"Have you been paying attention to the discussion? I asked you a question."

Danny rolled his eyes, and held up his left earbud, twirling it a bit to make sure it caught the girl's attention.

"You shouldn't be listening to music during class! That's rude, to Mr. Lancer and the rest of us."

Was she seriously scolding him over this?

"What are you, my mother?"

"No, but Mr. Lancer can call her. And he should! What kind of student are you, ignoring the teacher that's trying to help you!" She was getting very loud now, which just increased Danny's ire.

The hybrid rolled his eyes. "Go ahead." And with that, he stuffed his headphones back into his ears, and returned his attention to his not-yet-started drawing.

Only to find the paper ripped out of his hands.

"Hey!" He shouted. Looking up, he saw that he was, once again, being bothered by Manson. The teen was now extremely irritated.

"Do you have a problem or something?" Danny asked, rather loudly.

"My _problem_ , is that you're being _extremely_ rude, you little-" Manson was interrupted when Lancer cut in.

"Okay! That's enough of that, children. Ms. Manson, Mr. Fenton, the two of you have detention this afternoon, for disturbing the class." Lancer cut in

"But Mr. Lancer-" The goth started.

"I don't want to hear it, Ms. Manson. Detention, in here, after school. Now return to your seat." The overweight English teacher glanced over at Danny, to see if the boy would complain as well. Fortunately, the boy had already put his headphones back in, and returned to his art.

Satisfied that he had averted a potential crisis, Lancer returned to the front of the room to continue his class. Sam shot Danny a scathing look- no doubt blaming him for her detention- but was further infuriated to see that the boy was not visibly bothered.

Danny had quickly pushed the incident towards the back of his mind, and ended up absorbed in his art. He hadn't even heard the bell ring, having to be alerted by Mr. Lancer, who took the chance to remind the boy about his detention. Danny simply nodded, wondering what his parents would think.

Then again, they didn't _have_ to know. He could just say he was finishing up a group project or something. Not like his parents would investigate or anything, and Jazz was always busy with who-knows-what at any given time of the day.

Deciding that there was no real problem, Danny went to gym with a calm state of mind- that was quickly broken ten minutes into class, when his ghost sense went off. Seeing that Tetslaff was too busy trying to get Dash out of yet _another_ detention, he quickly slipped out the gymnasium, and made his way to the bathroom. Once there, the hybrid locked himself into a stall, then transformed.

Following the pull of his ghost sense through a few walls, Danny was surprised to see he was led to a faculty meeting. He recognized his Art teacher, Mrs. Clayton, Lancer, and Falluca, but most of the other adults were strangers (he had seen a couple of them in halls, but never caught a name to associate them with).

He noticed Principal Ishiyama standing at the center of attention, next to a woman with oddly-styled red hair reminiscent of horns. Slightly curious as to who the woman was, since he had definitely never seen her around here, Danny continued on his merry way.

Only to stop dead in his tracks when his ghost sense was magnified as he passed her. It felt like something was trying to pull itself out of his head.

Now worried, Danny decided to keep an eye on this woman. It would probably be a good start to figure why she was here.

Principal Ishiyama finally began speaking.

"Everyone, I would like you all to meet Penelope Spectra, our new therapist! I've noticed recently that our students lack their normal cheer, and just before Spirit Week, of all times! I decided it would be a good idea to hire a counselor to help at least some of the kids get back to their usual selves. Penelope, is there anything you would like to add?"

"Why yes there is, Principal! I just wanna say I'm excited to be working with you all, and if you notice any of the kids having problems, you should send them to me right away! It's never a good idea to let issues fester!" She sounded very preppy, something which irritated Danny. He never did like overly cheerful people, probably because they tended to be very loud.

It seemed like the meeting was over after that, thankfully, so he didn't have to sit around for god knows how long listening to useless pleasantries and whatnot. He followed Penelope Spectra- _if that was even her real name!_ \- as she wandered through the halls, stopping in front of a room that was likely her new office.

She went in, and Danny continued to follow, only to stopped when she began to speak to the air.

"You know, it's _awfully_ rude to stalk someone. Why don't you show yourself?"

Knowing he had been caught, Danny sighed and dispersed his invisibility. Penelope's eyes latched onto his form, and her lips curved into a seductive, if somewhat creepy, smirk.

"Alright, ya got me. But what's a ghost doing, playing as a therapist?"

"I should be asking _you_ that, kid. What's a ghost doing following another ghost, huh? Is this place your haunt?"

Danny was confused. "My what?"

"Your haunt. You don't know what that is?" Danny shook his head. "How long have you been around?"

"Like, two weeks."

"Well, I suppose you can be excused for your ignorance… Anyway, a haunt is the area which a ghost has chosen to, well, _haunt_. It's fairly self-explanatory."

Danny turned the idea over in his mind, before nodding in agreement. "I guess this is my haunt, then. Could've picked a better place, though…" The hybrid grimaced. It wasn't that he _didn't_ like Amity Park- he had lived here his whole life. Somewhere along the line, a sense of patriotism was bound to have been instilled in the boy.

Of course, that didn't mean he was blind to the place's innumerable imperfections. The school system followed the old cilchés, where the jocks and rich kids were at the top of society, able to do just about anything they wanted without consequence, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. Outside of school was fairly similar, where the rich made the trends, the average people followed along like sheep, and the other people were ridiculed for not fitting in- such as Danny's family.

Penelope broke Danny from his thoughts, saying, "What, you don't like it here? You can always _move_ , ya know. Leave the place to me- I'd be _more_ than glad to take over, what with all these delectable miserable teenagers everywhere…" She trailed off, her eyes taking on a slightly glazed look.

"Wait, you eat kids!?" Danny shouted. He readied himself for a fight. While he might not care about his peers- and they definitely didn't care about him- it would weigh on his conscience if he let some innocent(ish) kids get murdered.

"No, no, nothing like that. Honestly, kid, that's disgusting! I'm talking about their emotions."

Danny's white eyebrows raised up a bit. "Uh… Ya lost me."

Penelope sighed. "Gosh, you really _are_ young. Most ghosts have the ability to consume the feelings of mortals to get energy, unless that ghost is _really_ weak- like, I'm talking ectopus weak, and at that point, they aren't even sentient. Any emotion can be consumed, and when that happens, the emotion is amplified. Depressing and other sad feelings give the most energy to a ghost- I guess it's because our very existence is pretty damn sad."

"Alright then...So, you became a therapist to get close to the kids, and then… take advantage of them coming to you for their problems, somehow?"

"Got it in one, kiddo! For a ghost so young, you're pretty smart." Her mocking tone alerted Danny to the sarcasm. "By the way, what's your name? I can't just keep calling you 'kid' this whole time, it's kinda rude."

"I'm Danny." It was Penelope's turn to raise an eyebrow at him.

"No last name? Can't remember it, or you just don't use it?"

"I, uh, can't remember it. I don't remember much of my life, but this place seems familiar. That's why I hang around.

Penelope put a hand on his shoulder, which slightly freaked out the teen.

"Aw, you poor dear. It must be so frustrating, having that constant feeling of deja-vu without knowing why."

Danny nodded slowly, not really sure what to say.

"Well, I can't help with that. _But_ , I can help you with the name part. Why don't you just do what I did, and make one up?"

"I _knew_ that wasn't your real name!" Danny cried, but then immediately calmed down. He seemed embarrassed, which caused Penelope to chuckle.

"Of course that's not my real name- seriously, what the heck kinda name is _Spectra_? I use it because it's funny. After all, I'm a ghost, a _specter_ , named Spectra! Ha! I crack myself up…" She trailed off into quiet laughter. "And the best part is that those stupid humans have no clue! They just assume my name is foreign, and don't say anything to avoid offending me! Gosh mortals are so _soft_."

Danny had been slowly back away during her little rant, and was about ready to phase through the wall when Penelope turned her attention back to him. Suddenly, she was in his face, causing him to let out a startled yelp.

"Hm, what to call you? Danny Spectra? No… doesn't sound quite right- Plus, that's my name, and I've grown attached to it, despite how bad it sounds... Spook? Wraith? Spirit?" She trailed off, muttering some more with the occasional headshake. Finally, she let out a growl of frustration, and pulled out her phone.

"Ghost… synonyms." She said out loud as her fingers flew across the digital keyboard. It took a few moments for the page to load, but when it did…

"Aha! Danny Phantom!" Penelope crowed, seeming quite pleased with herself.

Danny, despite his misgivings about the woman, turned the words about in his head. Danny Phantom? It had a nice ring to it. He nodded at Penelope to show his approval. The redhead broke out into a little happy dance, involving a fair bit of swaying those curvy hips, which mesmerized the teen until he forced his eyes away. Damned hormones!

He hoped to every deity out there that Penelope wouldn't notice the rush of ectoplasm which rose to his face, but he had been forsaken.

"Are you blushing? Aw, how _cute_! You know, I can do some things that'll leave you a green-faced mess just _remembering_ it." Did she just purr?

The redhead began walking closer, and Danny became painfully aware of just how tight that red suit was. In moments, the older ghost had the teen pressed up against the wall.

The young hybrid finally realized the position they were in, and instantly phased through the wall. The sultry smirk was wiped off Penelope's face, and she turned around with a sigh.

"You had this gorgeous woman giving you the chance that most men would kill for, but you run away? Are you gay?"

"No!" Danny squeaked from his spot on the ceiling, where he re-entered the room after his hasty escape. "It's just, I'm only fourteen, so isn't that illegal?"

Penelope gave him a baleful look. "The laws only apply to living people, hon. A shame about your sexuality, you're pretty cute. Then again, it _is_ always the cute ones who end up being gay…"

"I'm not gay!"

"Oh, I'm just teasing, dear. I saw the way you were looking at me." She trailed off with a chuckle.

Danny let out a shuddering sigh. It seemed that this woman only existed to make him suffer. Was dying of awkwardness a thing? At least, dying all the way. The Portal already took care of half the job.

The teen was about to say something, but was interrupted by the bell. He was shocked- he didn't think he had spent _that_ long here!

"Um, I gotta go- I think my dog's getting lonely. See ya later!" He zoomed through a wall before Penelope could utter a word, leaving behind a very confused full-ghost. She simply shrugged it off. There were far crazier wraiths in the Underworld, after all.

* * *

Danny had forgotten he had lunch after gym, meaning there was no reason for him to rush off like that. Even if he _did_ have a class, he didn't actually care if he was late or not…

The hybrid chalked it up to his subconscious desire to leave before he melted from embarrassment and left it at that. With nothing better to do, since he didn't need to eat anymore, Danny decided to go for a fly. Those never failed to clear his head, which he was in desperate need of at the moment. Besides, visiting Cujo sounded like a fun idea.

It took mere minutes for Danny to reach his house from Casper High, thoroughly enjoying the exhilarating rush of speed. Phasing through his wall, Danny's eyes immediately landed on the toxic green which stuck out like a sore thumb in his mostly blue and black room. Cujo was curled up on his bed, still asleep, and making these weird noises which seemed oddly reminiscent of snoring. Do ghost dogs snore? Do ghost dogs even need to breathe?

Probably not. Danny himself didn't need to breathe in his ghost form, and he breathed a lot slower in human mode.

Deciding not to wake the adorable puppy, the hybrid went back out the wall, intent on simply doing a few circuits of Amity Park's airspace.

A few minutes into the joyride, that little plan fell apart. Skulker had managed to put himself back together, _again_ \- despite the troubles his tiny actual body must have given him- and was chasing down his latest prey with unrivaled determination. Danny had to admire the hunter, at least a bit. The dude had some serious conviction.

Unfortunately, the teen once again did not have a Fenton Thermos on hand. Maybe it would be a good idea to store one in the deep pockets of his ghost form's cargo pants? Actually, no. The things in his pocket somehow managed to make the switch with him. Like his phone, for instance. He had been practicing his aerial maneuvers (read: goofing off in zero gravity) when his phone dropped out of his pants. It seemed to have slipped his mind at the time, but he should have been wondering why it was there in the first place.

Then again, he _could_ always start wearing super-baggy pants in his human form. The Thermos would be hidden amongst the folds of cloth, and Dash never went below the belt with his bullying. Yeah,,, that could work.

Back to running for his life. Remembering how unsuccessful phasing through things had been- the bastard had a very high-tech tracker- Danny instead focused on pouring all his energy into flying faster. It seemed to work, marginally, because the metal ghost was lagging behind a bit. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to outfly the missiles. Speaking of missiles, here came some more!

Dodging out of the way, the rockets blew a massive chunk out of a building. That thing would have knocked him the fuck out if he was hit! Danny felt slightly guilty that his erratic retreat was causing so much property damage, but at the same time, he didn't really care. That was a building owned by strangers who the teen had never talked to, and probably never would. They could suffer a bit so long as it meant Danny didn't get skinned alive.

That was still disgusting.

"Stop running, whelp! All you are doing is prolonging your suffering!" And that was Skulker, who was still chasing him, and still annoying.

"Don't you have anything better to do with your time!?" Danny shouted at the ghost.

"No! Nothing shall get in between me and my ultimate prey!"

"Dude, that's so fucking _creepy_! Get a girlfriend or something!" Could ghosts have relationships? Who knows. It'd probably at least be pretty entertaining to watch.

"I _do_ have a girlfriend!"

Danny managed to trip midflight like an idiot, ending up spinning head over ass before finally righting himself. That had been a surprise, to say the least. Unfortunately, his comedy act had given Skulker the time he needed to catch up, and Danny became the recipient of a knife to the side.

"Fuck!" Despite the fact that he had super regeneration, and this wound would be gone by tomorrow, he didn't have an insane amount of pain tolerance. Although, he could probably develop it…

That was a thought for another time. The hybrid still couldn't comfortably defeat Skulker, so taking more hits than necessary would probably end in his full death- as opposed to his current state of half death. Pretty weird stuff, if you took the time to think about it.

Doing his best to ignore the blade in him, Danny summoned the energy to make an ectoplasm, and shot Skulker in the neck point-blank. The teen was not surprised when the hunter's head popped off, instead being more relieved than anything. A green blob rolled out, ending upside down on the ground. It quickly righted itself, and turned to the half-ghost.

"I will have my revenge, ghost child!" Screamed an extremely high-pitched voice. Skulker's true form was weird.

"...Is this gonna become a normal thing? Because lemme tell ya now, once I get strong enough, I'll murder ya." Danny said in the most deadpan voice to ever exist.

Skulker quieted down for a bit after the threat, but seemed to regain his usual bravado after a few moments.

"Fool! You cannot murder me, for I am the greatest hunter in the Underworld! I will be the one killing-!"

"Actually, you're pretty small. I _could_ just step on you…"

Skulker shut up, this time for good. Satisfied, Danny snatched up the green blob and plopped it back into the metal head it came from. Covering the opening with a palm, the teen began vigorously shaking it. Falsetto bitching could be heard from within, which soon stopped as Danny continued to rattle Skulker's brain.

Deciding he didn't want to deal with this again anytime soon, Danny kept hold of the makeshift prison. He was about to start flying home, when his eye caught the sunlight reflecting off the full battlesuit, simply laying there on the ground. He could probably dismantle it and find something cool. He had learned a fair bit about ectoplasm mechanics from his parents and their constant assault of lectures- when they weren't too busy to ignore him, that is.

It couldn't hurt (unless the suit blew up). Grabbing hold of the suit, Danny transferred his gravity-defying ability to the metal and took off for home. The teen completely forgot about school, and his detention, but he had more important business to take care of. Such as duct taping the neck hole of Skulker's head so the blob couldn't escape. It would be fun to listen to him scream.

* * *

 **Bleh im back. I never actually left just went to a different story (btw check those out). So I just basically redid this whole story. It's pretty similar to the original, but there are some differences throughout the entire thing, so go check that out :P**


	9. Chapter 9

At home, Danny shoved Skulker's suit into his admittedly large closet, not even bothering to close the door- nobody came into his room anyways. The head was held up against his side, with a palm still covering the only exit. Luckily, Skulker was unable to phase through the metal, since he had programmed it to turn intangible along with him.

Yanking open one of his drawers, Danny found the much sought-after roll of silver tape, a malicious smirk spreading across his face. He quickly rattled the green blob, to ensure he was too dizzy to escape in the moment the hybrid let go, in order to tear off a piece of tape.

For some reason, duct tape was resistant to intangible ghosts, which he discovered after trying to phase through one of the walls in his house. The wall had had a hole shot through, just a small one, so his dad simply slapped a piece of duct tape on it and called it a day. It was weird, but Danny tried hard to not think about it. He didn't want to end up with a headache.

A few moments later, Skulker was yelling his head off, the metal head shaking about as the small ghost desperately attempted to escape by throwing himself against the confines of his prison. Danny was having the time of his life, laughing his ass off.

Eventually, he got bored, and wiped a solitary tear out of his eye. With gasping breaths (that weren't actually necessary), Danny managed to fill his not-functioning lungs with air. At some point, the teen had fallen, and had to pick himself up, but couldn't resist a few more chuckles everytime he looked back at the decapitated hunter. His knife wound twinged a few times, but the hybrid ignored it. The gash had healed considerably in those few minutes, something which pleased the teen.

Turning his head away from the tiny jail, so he didn't devolve into another laughing fit, Danny's eye caught sight of his alarm clock. 2:30. He could make it back to school so he didn't end up skipping detention, but… did it really matter?

With a sigh, Danny decided to get back. It just wasn't worth the hassle of being yelled at by Lancer, or his parents if the teacher decided to call. Plus, it might be pretty funny to watch Manson become increasingly angry.

Another glance at Skulker, to be sure the hunter wouldn't escape- and also to tickle his funny bone- Danny was satisfied he wouldn't have to deal with getting skinned anytime soon. Hopefully never.

Phasing through a wall, Danny shot off into the air, back in the direction of Casper High. Idly, the half-ghost wondered how Cujo didn't wake up through all that noise. Then again, he didn't remember seeing the dog. Maybe he went to 'take care of business.'

Danny's ghost sense went off again, pulling him in the same direction he was going. It was probably Penelope, but it wouldn't hurt to check. In fact, it would probably hurt _more_ to not check.

A couple walls later, Danny had confirmed it was Penelope- who took the chance to mercilessly tease him about coming back to take her up on her offer. Running away again, Danny fled to an empty bathroom.

Quickly transforming back, Danny walked out of the bathroom as if he had been there the whole time, and hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. He had forgotten his bag on the gym floor, so he headed there.

Turning invisible in an abandoned hallway, the teen quickly walked through the wall- he had finally learned to use invisibility and intangibility together- and spotted his black bag, resting against the bleachers where he left it. Glancing around quickly to confirm nobody would see this, Danny laid a hand on the backpack, his invisibility transferring to it. The hybrid could still see it, due to some weird mumbo-jumbo about invisible things being able to see other invisible things. Crazy shit.

Walking back out into that same abandoned hall, Danny faded into visibility, heading towards his Chemistry class with a drawn out sigh. Mr. Reynolds was gonna get on his case about being late, _again_. That fucker was annoying, with his wispy comb-over, as if that shit could attract any fine ladies to his old, wrinkly ass.

Danny groaned out loud at the prospect of having some old sot ragging on him, before deciding to just wander the halls. Hall monitors were basically nonexistent, and the few he _did_ see didn't do their job- they were too busy flirting with the _underaged_ girls or hanging out with the funny guys. Fucking disgusting.

Walking slow, slower than a snail, Danny managed to complete three loops of the school's main hall before the bell rang. Students practically _ran_ out of their classrooms, most of them heading for the doors, which was quite unusual since there was still another period left before school ended.

Then he heard an explosion in the direction the students were coming from, and his ghost sense went off. That gave him some idea what was going on.

Seeing that the other students were too busy panicking, Danny ducked into a currently abandoned hallway, dropped his bag in a corner, and turned invisible once more. The familiar chill washed over the teen, and he began to sprint to the source of the commotion, occasionally phasing through teens who were in his way.

Danny halted in front of a computer lab, where the crashes and screams were at their loudest. Looked like some students were trapped by the ghost; what a _pain_.

With an aggravated sigh, the hybrid transformed into his ghost form to access his flight- he had a feeling he would need to move fast for this fight- and slammed open the door.

The sight he was greeted to was… not really that scary. Danny had no clue why these kids were screaming. It was _only_ a green man, with funky white hair and a lab coat. Oh, he was also surrounded by a tornado of computers.

"Dude, what's with the hair?" Danny asked, loudly enough to be heard over the terrified students.

The ghost turned towards him, pausing from whatever the hell he was saying before.

"Ah, so _you_ are the one the Box Ghost spoke of, eh? Well child, you certainly don't look like much."

"Yeah, and you sure look like a whole lot- a whole lotta _crazy_. Seriously, you trying to go for the Einstein look or something? Because lemme tell ya, the green skin kinda ruins the whole thing."

"Hmph. Quite the mouth on you. Tell me, child, what is your name? I wish to know what to engrave into your tombstone."

"It's Danny… Phantom. And we're already ghosts; we don't _use_ tombstones. Dumbass."

Einstein's eyebrow twitched, and his eyes were likely narrowed in anger- the ghost wore dark shades, so Danny couldn't tell. The half-ghost shifted into a fighting stance, ready to attack at any moment, something the full ghost noticed.

"You impudent _brat_! To insult one so intellectually superior to you- the absolute _nerve_ of you young'uns these days! Very well, hear my name and know fear! I am Nicolai Tesla- known as Technus in the Underworld- the ghost who shall conquer the human world with my brilliance!"

"E. Coli? I'm pretty sure that's, like, a disease. Not really the scariest name…"

At this point, the now-named Technus was practically boiling in anger.

"You dare!? I, Technus, will prove to you that I am much more deadly than a mere _disease_! Posture all you want, Danny Phantom, your fists can do nothing in the face of my _lightning_!" With that, Technus began to pull thousands of volts of electricity from the computers he was controlling and his own body. The ghost compressed all the electricity into one massive bolt, then launched it at Danny.

The teen panicked. Lightning was seriously fast, and he wouldn't be able to dodge it properly. The only choice left was to go intangible, which he did- only to be surprised when he was still hit.

Technus was also startled, before a manic grin spread across his green phase. "So, electricity is what killed you, huh? Perfect! Not that I _needed_ another advantage, but I will gladly make use of it!" The ghost once more began to pull together massive amounts of static, in preparation for another bolt of lightning.

Danny was still dazed, and he recalled the feeling of being electrocuted quite well; after all, as Technus stated, it _was_ how he died. Piecing it together, Danny realized quickly that ghosts had a weakness to whatever caused their death. For example, a ghost that burned to death would be extremely susceptible to fire. Or, in his case, electricity.

Deciding that this would not be a good match up, especially in such a cramped space as the computer lab, Danny leapt to his feet and sunk into the ground.

Technus put his guard up, drawing his leashed static into a personal tornado to block surprise attacks from any blind spots. The ghost's eyes darted all over the room, ignoring the damaged furniture and cowering students, searching for his young adversary.

Danny, meanwhile, was right above the Einstein lookalike, floating upside down with his head hanging through the ceiling. Using very fine control, that he had achieved only recently, the teen turned his body, except for his eyes, invisible. He remembered what Skulker had said, about invisible ghosts being able to see others, and was testing to see if it was only the eyes that allowed that ability.

This was to make sure Technus did not suddenly follow him into the plane of invisibility suddenly, not without his knowledge. Danny theorised that, by using his powers like this, he would be able to see if Technus turned invisible, whereas if the teen's eyes were also invisible, he would not be able to tell the difference.

So far, it seemed to be working. Technus had looked straight up a few times, not catching sight of his foe, then returning to scanning the rest of the room. Figuring that it had been long enough, Danny quickly dropped from the ceiling, hooked a hand around the collar of the ghost's lab coat, and dragged Technus up through the roof.

The hybrid tossed his enemy away from him as soon as they were outside, just in case the madman tried anything fancy. Seeing that Technus had been disoriented by his kidnapping, Danny began peppering the scientist with ghost rays, trading power for speed. It seemed to work well enough, since the barrage unbalanced the full ghost further.

Danny had been inching closer during his bombardment, eventually making use of the short distance between the two by darting over and slamming an ecto-infused fist into the green man's face. He had thought of this after his scuffle with Cujo. The intense heat caused his punches to deal more damage, and any grapples would likely end with his enemy charred. It didn't even take much energy to keep up, the drain being barely noticeable.

A few more hits later, and Technus' face was a mess of fractured bones and green blood. Man, that ghost strength came in _real_ handy.

After a couple more blows, Danny realized Technus had passed out a while ago. He had been pounding on an unconscious foe, which made Danny chuckle a bit. He stopped chuckling when he realized he, once again, didn't have the Fenton Thermos.

"For fuck's sake…" Danny muttered, pinching his nose with ectoplasm-stained fingers. Danny realized he couldn't just _leave_ the ghost here- he would wake up eventually, and probably kill someone. Or maybe just keep spouting his superiority-complex bullshit, and God knows _nobody_ needed to hear _that_. It was bad enough that arrogant people were already annoying as all hell, but Technus had a very reedy voice that could pierce eardrums.

Grumbling to himself about his damned forgetfulness, Danny once more grabbed the knocked-out ghost by his lab coat, and dragged him off in the direction of his house. If he couldn't remember to bring the Thermos to his fights, he would simply bring the ghosts to his Thermos.

Or maybe the Ghost Portal. After all, the Fenton Thermos _had_ been designed to only temporarily catch ghosts until they could be properly transported back to their proper dimension (that, or to hold soup. One could never be too sure with Jack Fenton)... Oh well. He would just decide once he got there.

* * *

At the Fenton residence, for the umpteenth time that day- much to Danny's irritation- the hybrid discovered the Ghost Portal was a no-go at the moment. Jack and Maddie were _still_ in the lab, doing who-knows-what. So Thermos it was.

It took Danny a few moments to find it under his bed, where it had apparently rolled at some point. The teen grabbed it, and immediately noticed that the piece of metal was heavier than it should have been. Looking down at it, he was startled to meet the gaze of green eyes.

Blinking in confusion, Danny held his hand away from him, to get a full view of the… creature. Turns out, it was just Cujo, wagging his tail in excitement at the possibility of playing a game.

Chuckling at the puppy's antics, Danny shook the small dog off, and sucked the still-unconscious Technus into the cylinder. He made a note to keep in a safe place, just in case Cujo accidentally managed to set free any ghosts in there while he was away. _That_ would not be pleasant at all.

Seeing as Cujo was still eyeing him playfully, Danny relented and grabbed the dog, before flying out of his house and into the afternoon sky. He hurled the puppy into the lower stratosphere, smiling when he caught the sound of eager barking as it faded from his super-hearing.

The dog _really_ liked going fast, and could only reach his top speeds in his monster form. Cujo was decidedly against transforming outside of combat situations, so the next best thing was to utilize Danny's strength in a strange fashion. At least it was entertaining for everyone involved. Danny theorized that his dog was an adrenaline junky, which was actually pretty damned funny. He could just imagine the dog sitting behind the wheel of some tricked-out hypercar, swerving through the busy streets of a big city, police sirens blaring in the background… Yeah, Danny had an overactive imagination.

Once he had tossed the dog, the teen flew on back to the school. Cujo could find something to do on his own- Danny had a detention to get to. Oh, and art class, his absolute favorite.

Mrs. Clayton, the teacher, was super nice, as most art teachers tended to be. She didn't really have lesson plans. Instead, she taught the students a new style of drawing, painting, or sculpting, and had them practice on their own. With this method, many students had found a technique which they absolutely adored, while others were still looking. The best part, though, was the fact that Mrs. Clayton didn't give up on her students, nor was she unreasonable. If they didn't do particularly well with a certain technique, she would have them move on to something they might actually enjoy, as opposed to forcing them to keep working at it until they got it right.

Mrs. Clayton's belief was that artists were born for a certain way of creation. Sure, they could practice with others, but there was always that _one_ method which they would use the most imaginatively.

As you can tell, Danny was, for once, very happy to show up for class. Imagine his annoyance, then, when the principal came on over the loudspeaker telling the rest of the students to call someone to get them, because they were closing the school for the rest of the day while repairs were made. Oh well, at least he didn't have to go to detention with Manson. It's the small blessings you have to be thankful for.

Then again, knowing Lancer, it would simply be rescheduled for his earliest convenience. Damn that man and his good teaching skills.

* * *

 **I hate proof reading my stuff. Its so annoying, especially when I write stuff longer than 2k words, which is why I didn't do it for this one. Maybe I should get a beta-reader… (Btw, thats a subtle invitation for anyone who wants. Provide some examples of work you've done, or I'll make some stuff to test ya.)**


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